By Michael Otterman
"They should be tried as adults, and it serves them right," said Eric, a Bellmore resident who asked that his last name be withheld. "You do the crime, you do the time. That's how it is in America."
Last month, the three players were charged as juveniles with more than 10 crimes, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated assault and kidnapping -- all first degree felonies. Pennsylvania district attorney Mark Zimmer later petitioned Wayne County Judge Robert Conway to transfer the cases from juvenile court to adult court.
A long-time Bellmore resident, who requested that her name be withheld, said that the senior Mepham players should be tried as adults. "They did wrong, and they knew what they were doing. They're not children. The age of reasoning is 7 years old," she said.
Sahil Kapoor, the owner of Bedford Liquor Busters in Bellmore, disagreed. "I think they should be tried as kids because they have a whole future ahead of them. Even five years in prison is too much; they'll miss out on their whole future," he said.
If tried and convicted in juvenile court, the suspects can only be detained until they are 21. In adult court, the defendants could receive up to 20 years for each first-degree felony conviction. The involuntary deviate sexual intercourse charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in adult court.
The likelihood that the charges would be transferred to adult court is slim, according to Robert Schwartz, director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, a non-profit legal service.
"[Transfers] don't happen a lot in Pennsylvania these days, although it's not unheard of," he said. "Usually, kids that are second- and third-time offenders get transferred. It's hard to transfer first-timers."
According to Schwartz, the district attorney must prove that the suspects are not treatable in the juvenile system in order for the charges to be transferred to adult court. "That's a very hard thing to prove," he said.
James Anderson, executive director of Pennsylvania's Juvenile Court Judges Commission, also said that a transfer was unlikely.
"Only 1 or 2 percent of all juvenile cases in Pennsylvania are transferred to adult court," said Anderson.
In deciding whether to transfer the case, the judge must consider the severity of the crime, the crime's impact on the victims and community, and the nature and circumstances of the case, he said.
"It's a very difficult case to transfer given the circumstances of when and where [the alleged attacks] were committed," he said. The fact that the alleged attacks occurred under the supervision of adults complicates the case further in terms of culpability, he said.
The district attorney was to present his case for the transfer on Wednesday, Nov. 12, after press time.
A woman leaving the Bellmore Playhouse movie theater on Friday said, "[The suspects] should pay the price. They knew what they were doing, they weren't 10 years old. They were old enough to know better."
What Pennsylvania law says
Pennsylvania law states that suspects under 18 are to be tried in juvenile court unless they used a deadly weapon in a felony attack or have a felony conviction on their record. Although they are under 18, the Mepham suspects had no previous record and did not use deadly weapons in the alleged attacks.
The Pennsylvania DA recently petitioned that the charges be refiled in adult court owing to the "horrific" nature of the crimes.
