Arizona – Police Coerce Confession from Child

The hot news from St. Johns, AZ is the police allegation of an eight‑year‑old boy killing two adult males.

From news reports so far, it appears that this may be a case of police presumption. They seemed to jump on this immediately and extracted a confession from this child without any legal representation.

Two men were found dead from gunshots on the evening of 08 November, 2008. The son of one of the men is now the suspect. Conveniently for the police, the town priest, the Very Rev. John Paul Saute, has given statements that the boy’s father taught the boy how to shoot a 22‑caliber rifle.

The suspect was named quite rapidly and then subjected to an interrogation when he confessed. The child was not represented by a parent or attorney during the interrogation nor was he mirandized. Even if he were informed of his rights, he was not competent to release them given his age.

There has been a movement in American law enforcement to try to make boys in the seven to twelve‑year range as criminals in cases where the evidence did not warrant.

Last year, three eight and nine‑year‑old boys were charged withe the rape of an eleven‑year‑old girl. The girl did not report the incident for several days after the alleged event and there was another uncharged girl present who has not been used as a witness.

The Acworth Georgia, Police Chief Michael Wilkie suggested that if the act were consensual, the younger boy would still have to be charged with rape rather than the older girl.

In 1998, Chicago, Illinois, police announced that they arrested eight and nine‑year‑old boys for the rape and murder of eleven‑year‑old Ryan Harris. Prosecutors were willing to ride the wave of notoriety. The forensic evidence showed that an older person had raped the victim. After obtaining a coerced confession, the authorities were very happy to allow the real, and dangerous, perpetrator to continue. For a short while, gender feminists were in Nirvana.

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Police were ecstatic in 2003 when they arrested a nine‑year‑old for rape because he had been playing doctor. The conspiracy of the County Prosecutor and Social Services Director hounded the boy into a sexual offender program. Police also claimed that the boy’s father had molested him. The boy denied that allegation in court, but the father’s life had already been ruined. Shortly after this incident, police discovered a ring of doctor players but none of the new perpetrators were prosecuted nor was the police victim exonerated.

In 2005, authorities in Appleton, Wisconsin, claimed that ten kindergarten boys ran down four fifth grade girls and held them while performing inappropriate touching. The school principal Valerie Dreier and Appleton School Superintendent, Tom Scullen, automatically believed the allegations and made public statements that incriminated the boys before any investigation was taken.

Children are capable of committing horrible crimes. A 1968 murder case demonstrates this. Ten‑year‑old Mary Bell killed a four‑year‑old boy. She then recruited an eleven‑year‑old girl to assist in the murder of a three‑year‑old boy.

I cannot rule out that the Arizona boy killed his father and another adult. It would be unusual since children who kill usually target other children. Given the willingness of investigators to jump to conclusions, I must question the claims. Since the boy was interrogated without any representation, he was totally at the mercy of interrogators and open to coercion and suggestion.

The St. Johns police chief, Roy Melnick, is attempting to spin the case into lurid abuse by the father. But, by Melnick’s statements, the boy had not had any behavior problems in school nor did he have a record of police contact.

Let’s hope that there isn’t a real perpetrator still at large.