Bill tries to stem teens' threats to witnesses

Young teenagers who intimidate witnesses could be sentenced as adults and face up to 10 years in prison under a bill proposed by Norfolk County District Attorney William R. Keating and supported by other prosecutors as they struggle to overcome an anti-snitching culture that they say has made it difficult to hold criminals accountable.

According to Keating and his colleagues, younger and younger teenagers are threatening witnesses but face no serious consequences because juvenile laws carry relatively lenient penalties.

The bill, which is supported by several key lawmakers on Beacon Hill and Attorney General Martha Coakley, would add witness intimidation to the list of crimes that would subject 14- to 16-year-olds to prosecution as a "youthful offender," which strips them of most protections of juvenile court and subjects them to adult penalties. Currently, there are a handful of offenses in this category, including serious crimes committed with a gun, while murder automatically leads to prosecution as an adult.

"We arrest kids for intimidating a witness and they're back on the street the next day," said Paul Porter, police chief in Randolph, who has seen more young teens threatening witnesses in his city. "When nothing happens, the message to the witness is, 'Why did I bother telling the police?' The next time he's threatened, you think the [witness] is going to report it?"

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said witness intimidation is a huge and growing problem, hampering the prosecution of serious cases. The overwhelming majority of his office's drug and gun cases, he said, involve some degree of witness or victim intimidation.

"When a young person has reached the point where they would resort to intimidation and violence to silence others, it makes sense for prosecutors to have the option of treating those juveniles as adults," Conley said. "I don't know that it should be applied in every case -- most of the juveniles can be turned around. But some have demonstrated a great capacity for violence." But two community activists who work with teens argue that treating children as adults won't solve what they acknowledge is a serious problem.

"There needs to be a smarter way," said the Rev. Eugene Rivers, a Dorchester activist. "This unproductive and unimaginative idea that everything can be solved by being punitive -- in reality, it doesn't work. This is the equivalent of the simple-minded idea that if you buy more police, you buy more safety."

Emmett Folgert , director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, said witness intimidation is "one of the most serious offenses there is," but still believes juveniles should continue to be treated as juveniles.

"If we don't have witnesses, the criminal justice system falls apart," he said. "Literally, we'd have little gang warlords ruling. But I don't like tying the hands of judges. . . . There's a reason they're called juveniles. Anybody knows there's a difference. At 14, you're not beyond rehabilitation and you're subject to a lot of controlling pressures from adults. You're not as much of an independent operator as when you're older."

Under the bill -- sponsored by Senator Robert S. Creedon Jr., coleader of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee -- juveniles who threaten or intimidate witnesses would still be tried in juvenile court, but the proceedings would be public. In addition, a youthful offender convicted of witness intimidation would face the same punishment as adults -- up to 10 years in prison. The judge could also impose a shorter sentence or place the teenager in the custody of the Department of Youth Services, prosecutors said.

Currently, juveniles found guilty of intimidation could face DYS commitment but probably, would receive probation, Keating said. And because juvenile court trials are private, he said, "Nobody knows about it. The problem is becoming so pervasive, we have to do something stronger."

Coakley said she supports the bill, primarily because it would offer more protection to the witnesses who have been intimidated, by requiring prosecutors -- as in most serious cases -- to bring the case to a grand jury. This very secret process, she said, is much safer for the witness than when prosecutors take the case to juvenile court.

Juvenile court is "not a secret process and it's hard to do it effectively," Coakley said. "There are times where it is both appropriate and safer to present a case to the grand jury."

Coakley, who was the longtime Middlesex district attorney, said she also recognized the need to give prosecutors more options.

"One of the big problems a lot of our communities face is not only that crime is on the rise but the perpetrators are able to suppress the witnesses," Coakley said. "This gives prosecutors an additional tool to keep communities safe and to provide a level of additional protection for the victim of an intimidation claim, who is probably an important witness to the underlying crime."

In recent months, court and Boston officials have been stepping up their efforts to crack down on witness intimidation in criminal cases.

Last month, the presiding judge in Dorchester District Court banned cellphones from the courthouse after learning that someone had used a camera phone to snap photos of a witness in the hall.

And last year, a top state court official banned "Stop Snitchin" T-shirts from courthouses across the state and imposed strict limits on the use of mobile phone cameras.

Robert A. Mulligan, chief justice for administration and management, cited several cases in which spectators aimed camera phones at witnesses, jurors, and law enforcement officials. He said he was moved in part by an incident at Salem Superior Court in 2005, when several friends of a defendant in a gang-related trial were seen photographing a prosecutor, police investigator, and a witness.

In December 2005, Mayor Thomas M. Menino launched a campaign to discourage Boston businesses from selling the "Stop Snitchin' " clothing.

"In addition to overt intimidation, there is the street culture that says you don't ever talk to police," Conley said. "When we're kids in school we're taught not to snitch. But when someone commits a violent offense, it isn't snitching. But many young people, particularly those in the inner city, see it that way. It's going to take a lot to turn that phenomenon around."

Folgert said he would consider mandatory confinement in secure juvenile facilities as an alternative .

"I'm completely supportive of the need to tighten up the system," he said. "Something needs to be done."

Kyle Sullivan, spokesman for Governor Deval Patrick, said the administration hasn't taken a position on the bill and will await the first meeting of the Governor's Anticrime Council on May 10.