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Sunday, October 29, 1995 Page: 1
Crime and the criminals aren’t always what they seem
Now that the guilty pleas are in, the nasty picture seems perfectly
clearChildren molded by malice are placed at the United Children’s Home in the
tranquil borough of West Hazleton.
They lurk. They plot. They hear of an elderly lady living alone on East
Green Street. They learn she leaves her door open. They sneak in and, with the
help of a knife-toting friend with a mask, plunder a stash of cash.
They flee, leaving the 82-year-old shaken. She recalls little that is
helpful to police, except that the maskless robbers were young black men.
She abandons her home for a time. She’s afraid to go outside for weeks.
Police learn two of the robbers — the black ones — lived at the
Children’s Home, Madison Avenue. Police arrest the two, a 16-year-old from
Easton and a 17-year-old from Bethlehem, at the home, which sometimes takes in
urban kids. A short time later, police find their accomplice and arrest him as
he tries to steal an off-road vehicle.
All plead guilty to armed robbery. The two residents of the home are
banished from Luzerne County, sent back to their home county of Northampton.
Neighbors hear about the case and decide, with more resolve than ever, that
something should be done about the home. West Hazleton officials say they plan
to use the convictions — the most serious ever against residents of the home
— as leverage to repeat a request that the home help pay for a borough
policeman.
Yes, it seems clear: Savvy city kids are coming to mostly white West
Hazleton to cause trouble; if you live near the home you better lock your
doors and watch out; close the home and peacefulness will return.
But it’s not that easy, or simple.
There’s a couple of complicating factors that will not be welcome news to
some West Hazletonians: the ones who try to blame all crime on outsiders, the
ones who see a black kid and immediately label him a baddie from the home.
There’s this matter of the knife-toting accomplice.
He was the nastiest of the robbers. And he’s a 16-year-old white boy from
good ol’ West Hazleton.
He was the one who had the knife. He was the one clever enough to wear a
mask. He was the one most threatening to the victim. And he was the only one
of the three picked up by police while doing another crime.
But that’s not even the worst news for jingoistic West Hazletonians.
Police also confirm a fourth person was involved in the robbery. And it’s a
“she,” a white, home-grown “she.”
Officials say a young female relative of the elderly victim told the
bandits about the money: about $2,000 in cash in a dresser drawer. The girl
also presumably let the robbers know how to get into the victim’s home, police
say.
“It would have had to have been a setup,” said West Hazleton Police Chief
Eugene Kistulentz. He declined to name the girl. She was not charged, in part
because police could not prove she intended for her elder to be robbed.
Of course, a conspiracy does not absolve the two black kids. They have lost
a chance to live at a nice place in West Hazleton, near a staff of people
being paid to care about them. And the teenagers must — as they should —
face a judge for sentencing.
Attorney Conrad Falvello, who represents the Children’s Home, said he is
sad the boys screwed up. He stressed that one seemed to be doing well in
programs established by the home. He also said neither of the two boys had a
criminal record before the robbery.
The home sometimes houses boys with criminal pasts, but most are boys who
have been found by courts to be unable to live with relatives, at times
because of abuse.
~~”You hurt when the kids goof because they’re not objects,” said the Rev.
Richard Abernethy cq , 70, the home’s chief executive officer from 1957 to
1985 and a consultant there now. He said West Hazletonians should try hard to
look past the problems created by some of the boys at the home.
He also wonders how many people criticize abortion in one breath and the
home in the next. “Just because they were born, should they be left out on the
street?” he asks.
It’s unclear what will happen to the Northampton County boys now. State law
calls for them to be sentenced in their home county but no one from that
county’s offices of the district attorney or juvenile probation would return
calls.
As for the West Hazleton robber, he’s been sent to boot camp in South
Mountain, Pa., for 90 days. If he’s smart, and he behaves, he’ll probably be
out by mid-January. And he’ll probably be back in the borough.
I wonder what will be done to protect the boys at the Children’s Home?
David Iseman is the editor of the Hazleton Times Leader. His column appears
on Sundays.