Prison for taking a blow up doll to school?

[Jumping John]

Of course, common sense would say the crime does not rise to the level of a felony, but in the USA common sense is alien to the justice system.

But it remains a mystery to me what the prank was.

~~~~~~

RUSHVILLE, Ind. --School officials called police May 31 after a package was found in a girls' bathroom. A deflated blow-up doll was later found inside the box.

"I'm facing eight years for a doll, a plastic doll," Morton said Monday. "I didn't put anybody's name on it, nothing. Now I'm a terrorist for a prank gone wrong. It's life-changing. It's traumatizing."

"It's interesting that had he gone to school with a gun, there would've been a lesser charge. It would've been a Class D felony with up to three years," he said.

Rush County Schools Superintendent John Williams said the situation is done and over with.

More here: http://www.theindychannel.com/news/28149365/detail.html

[Jefferson23]

1. Zero tolerance rules equal zero thinking. I can only imagine how

completely asinine this country looks to the young.

[littlewolf]

9. yep .. hand drawn pictures of a gun will get you suspended ... seesh

[MineralMan]

2. Lame. I'd have run the thing, fully-inflated up the flag pole

when I was in high school, but they didn't have those dolls back in the early 1960s. And, if I had done that, I'd have gotten detention for a week, compensated for by the admiration and guffaws of my fellow students. We've gotten to the point where we can't take a joke any more.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Not an ounce of sanity among 300,000,000 "people"

[Fuddnik]

4. Maybe he was going to re-do the rapture episode of Six Feet Under.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LXuNpF6NVg

[Eddie Haskell]

5. There must be more to this ...

sounds like a harmless prank.

[struggle4progress]

6. School called the bomb squad. Gotta wonder if there was an assoociated phone call:

I left a package with something that I can blow up or something like that

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. He was on a surveillance camera, hooded and wearing gloves

See link in #14. I can more or less understand calling in the bomb squad when you've seen that.

[Blue_Tires]

7. holy damn...

When I was in HS in the early 90s, a friend of mine brought a deflated sex doll to school (private, religious and very conservative)...The guys and I tied it up in an S+M pose across the lockers in the gym locker room -- We also squirted lotion all over the place to "complete the look"...No one got in trouble, and I don't remember a single adult complaining about it (except for the poor janitor who had to clean it up -- he DID raise a stink)...

That classmate who brought the doll to school? He's now a reverend...True story...

[Blue_Tires]

8. What the hell is "felony criminal mischief" and how the hell does that apply here?

It's high school, FFS. That same week there were probably 20 other episodes of jackassery at school. Does the state plan to charge them, too?

[Moe Joe]

10. A tad harsh

Axl Rose has (reportedly) characterized Indiana as "a fascist state."

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

11. Hoosier Hostility.

There's a real mean streak running through this state. I think many here would welcome true fascism.

[NM Independent]

12. Meanwhile, a rich asshole buys his way out of jail in FL...

http://j.mp/l2YCjC

[dmr]

13. There's a Free Tyrell Facebook page - link inside

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Tyell-Morton/196681997045318?sk=wall#!/pages/Free-Tyell-Morton/196681997045318?sk=wall&filter=2

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. 'they're blowing it out of proportion," Tyell Morton said'

No, really, he did say that: :evilgrin:

Tyell Morton was caught on surveillance cameras bringing a package into Rushville High School while he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and latex gloves.

The school feared it was a bomb so they called in the state bomb squad.

Authorities discovered the box only contained a "blow up" doll which was left in the girls bathroom as a joke.

"It was just a senior prank, you know. I mean they're blowing it out of proportion," Tyell Morton said as he was taken away in handcuffs. "I didn't hurt nobody, I didn't have no intention of embarrassing nobody."

http://www.wgntv.com/wgntv-indiana-senior-prank-arrest-june5,0,3034534.story

I can see that, given the pictures of a hooded person carrying a package in, wearing gloves, you might play safe and call the bomb squad. And, having done that, someone wants him punished in some way. 'Felony criminal mischief' seems harsh, though; 'wasting police time' seems nearer the mark.

[struggle4progress]

16. IC 35-43-1-2 A person who ...

(2) knowingly or intentionally causes another to suffer pecuniary loss by deception or by an expression of intention to injure another person or to damage the property or to impair the rights of another person;
commits criminal mischief ...
(B) a Class D felony if:
(i) the pecuniary loss is at least two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) ...
http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/2010/title35/ar43/ch1.html

This is why the authorities are claiming the affair cost them $8000. I have no idea how the court will read the law in this case: the reading may turn on unreported facts and/or state of mind. Is "deception or .. an expression of intention to injure another person or to damage .. property" involved?