Document text
Judge says youth guilty of assault in switch shock Student faces sentencing April 7 By CHRIS BRISTOL A 16-year-old North Medford student was found guilty Thursday of booby-trapping a light switch that zapped a school employee with 277 volts of electricity. Capping a two-day hearing, Jackson County Juvenile Judge Mark Schiveley pronounced the boy guilty on charges of felony third-degree assault and second-degree criminal mischief. Earlier, the defendant confessed in court to another charge of criminal mischief. The judge set sentencing for April 7 -- one year after the day that forever changed Pat McLinn's life. McLinn, a campus monitor, was badly injured when she stuck a special key into a bathroom light fixture -- and bare wires -- that had been tampered with. The shock left her with lingering nerve and muscle damage, including a speech impediment and continuing psychological trauma. Despite a spate of vandalism that continued for several more weeks -- including the removal of light switch face plates and flooding in a boys' bathroom -- school officials at first thought the fixture might have been defective. Electricians later determined a plastic slot for the key had been pried from inside the switch. A reward was offered, and within days the boy and his locker partner were identified as suspects. They shared a locker because somebody had vandalized the defendant's locker. Deputy District Attorney Michelle Pauly built her case on the strength of statements the boy made to classmates, school administrators and police. Testimony indicated both boys collected face plates and latches from fixtures around the high school campus and kept them in their locker as quirky souvenirs. Two days after McLinn was shocked, the boys removed another face plate and left two bare wires exposed that nearly electrocuted a school janitor. Perhaps most damaging to the boy's defense was an interview with Medford police officer Brian Strickland, who testified the boy repeatedly made indirect allusions to his role in the McLinn incident. "I could see myself doing it as a joke," he told Strickland at one point. "I couldn't see myself doing it to hurt anyone." The boy took the stand in his own defense and explained that he vandalized the light switch on April 8 -- the day after the incident -- and therefore wasn't responsible for McLinn's injuries. He also testified that his various statements to Strickland were coerced in the course of an exhausting four-hour interview at the station. And he denied Pauly's suggestion that he refused to "'fess up" mainly because his parents could be sued by McLinn. In closing arguments, defense attorney Dave Orf argued the state failed to prove his client was the person responsible for tampering with the switch and, even if he was, there was no evidence he meant to hurt anybody. "Whoever did this was at risk themselves," he said. Schiveley, a 14-year veteran of the bench, was not convinced. Noting the boy and his locker partner had already confessed to similar acts of vandalism during the same time frame, the judge said it was all just too coincidental. He also brushed aside Orf's argument that a booby-trapped light switch represents only a passive threat, and therefore does not meet the legal standard for an assault-related weapon. "Planting a land mine would also be a passive act," he said. It was unclear how the verdict affects the boy's status at school pending the sentence date. He still goes to North -- and McLinn still works there. McLinn, 46, attended the hearing both days. After the judge's verdict, she began weeping on her husband's shoulder. "I just want to move on with my life," she said in a halting whisper. "I want him to move on, too." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA