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Juvenile cases create complicated issues
The public story of youth crime in Texas is an incomplete one, in part because juvenile records are sealed by law.
Lorenzo Martinez, the Temple teenager whose collarbone allegedly was broken on May 18, 2013, by two Temple Police Department officers investigating a reported theft at Wal-Mart, had an extensive record of encounters with local law enforcement officials, a hearing revealed.
However, since any offenses he may have committed were when he was a juvenile, no public records are available.
Martinez’s record was discussed during a recent public hearing on the indefinite suspension of Temple Police Officer Jeremy Bales, one of the officers shown in a Wal-Mart video taking down Martinez.
Several officers testified that Martinez broke the shoulder of a Temple police officer, tried to assault a school resource officer and was involved in a home burglary. Testimony also was given that Martinez was kicked out of the Wheatley Alternative Education Center after the alleged assault of the school officer.
Another Temple juvenile with a prior record, Garrett Marshall Gage, 17, was arrested Tuesday in Waco and charged with capital murder. He is a suspect in an armed robbery at a Waco apartment during which one resident, 20-year-old Braeden Freeman, was shot and killed. His earlier involvement with the law included assault-family violence.
Too many Texas juveniles are repeatedly finding themselves in trouble with police, and the solution to ending that problem is complicated, according to area judges.
Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean that anyone is giving up, though.
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