you don t want to the admit to marijuana, deny that, they ll dismiss it, you admit to resisting arrest. rodrick and his mother and attorney head off to court. you never know till somebody walks into court and you know and faces the judge how they re going to react or what they re going to say. okay. whatever decision rodrick makes in the next five minutes, it will likely feat the direction of his entire future. oh, god. mr. brown, you ve heard all the testimony today about what people think should happen to you. what do you want to have happen? i understand i resisted law enforcement. and me being back in that room for two weeks, that really got to me. i know i tested like positive for marijuana but that s something i did like back in july. and i thought i was going to be clean by the time i came to court. i know some people might say using a little bit of marijuana isn t like shooting somebody but at the same time, do you understand the significance of that one use of
and with the therapist. they want to get off, get done and call it a day. rodrick actually came to me and looked me in my face and said, can you please stay with me on my case, let me stay on probation with you so that we can get through this? can you be more specific about the level of improvement that you ve seen in the past year of working with him? he had an allegiance with a street gang. and there was a lot of respect that he got with the street gang. a lot of authority with the street gang. and position. and recently, rodrick has terminated his association by removing the tattoos on his arm. which is a measurable feat. how significant of a step is that for somebody who s been affiliated with a gang to remove the gang signs from themselves? a monumental step, a remarkable feat. do you believe it would be safe for him to be released to the care and custody of his mother. yes, i do. thank you. that s all the questions that i have, judge. rod, let s talk first about w
can you pass a drug screen today. i believe i can. what do you mean you believe you can? i believe i can. i do it any other time. it was an unfortunate end to a day in court that had been going rodrick s way. and it would only get worse for rodrick when the results came in. after you tested positive for marijuana, i ve been working with the prosecutor to try and get some type of agreement that gets this whole thing disposed of. the prosecutor was originally recommending 120 days locked up here. here s what here s what hold on. hang in there. hang in there. oh, god. you didn t let him finish. i want you to get out of here. i don t want to be here. you all supposed to be helping me. there ain t nobody helping me. nobody. rodrick, calm down.
it s okay. i ll see you at 1:30, all right? you re going to be all right. i ll be here all day every day. i love you. i love you too. hang in there. i certainly understand why the court did what it did. there s not a solid support structure in place where this mother says i m going to take care of this problem. and he s not going to be back again. while i certainly was advocating for him to go home and would have liked to have seen that, i understand the court s decision. with so much testimony pushing against morris release, the judge decides he should remain locked up until his next court hearing. rodrick, on the other hand, is coming to court with his own cheering section. but will it be enough to sway judge bonaventura? he actually asked me to stay on probation throughout the summer until his 18th birthday at his last hearing because he felt the extra supervision from myself would really help him get through the summer to ensure that he would be able to stay on the rig
extraordinary access from the indiana supreme court, we ve been allowed to take our cameras inside a world where they are, by law, generally forbidden. i ve been coming to lake county juvenile since like, three oh five. one of them years. been coming here for a long time. 17-year-old rodrick is back in lake county juvenile after being arrested for marijuana possession and resisting arrest. according to rodrick and those overseeing his face, he had been on a good straight and narrow path, working towards becoming an electrician, covering up his gang tattoos and preparing for the arrival of his second child. i got no time for no gangs, no nothing. i know you don t want your son living the same lifestyle you live. when i got out of boot camp and found out i supposedly had a child it changed me. i got something else to live for. i just can t live for like gang banging. i was just going to go back to school and complete this last year and get on with my life.