Cape boy arraigned in threat case
A 10-year-old Cape Coral boy accused of making a written threat to his school was arraigned Monday at the Lee County Justice Center.
The family of the boy, through a public defender, entered a plea of not guilty on a charge that the youth made the threat over the Memorial Day weekend.
Attorney Doug Molloy, who is handling the case for the family, did not appear as he was involved with another case, resulting in the public defender entering the plea on his behalf, as well as a delay in the arraignment.
The boy is set to return to court on Aug. 3, where it is likely the family will seek to have the charges dismissed.
After the arraignment, the Marquez family, as well as Letitia Kim from the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR), reiterated the boy’s innocence.
“(The boy) has been falsely accused and publicly maligned by the Lee County Sheriff. His constitutional rights have been violated and many in the media have uncritically repeated the sheriff’s absurd statements without questioning them,” Kim said. “Our focus is on repairing the harm done to this child, assuring this does not happen to any other family.”
The boy was accused of making a written threat to his school over Memorial Day weekend in relation to an upcoming event at Patriot Elementary School called “Water Day.”
The boy sent screenshots of a Google image search to a friend of money and a rifle, telling his friend he had “a bazillion dollars” and bought the guns.
The boy, who does not have a record of bad behavior and is an honor roll student and a Boy Scout, was taken into custody and sent to the juvenile detention center on Saturday, May 28. He did not return home until June 9, when it was thought he had COVID.
The boy’s father, Dereck Marquez, said the images were clearly not of something his son had tangible possession of, that you could see the Google image search bar in the photos sent.
“I’m still shocked it has even gotten this far. He’s 10 years old and there was never a threat made. He never threatened to hurt or injure anyone or any location,” Marquez said. “He’s a boy that adults use a lot of adult logic on when reading a 10-year-old’s text messages. Any parent would understand that doesn’t make sense.”
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, who initially declined comment, said in a prepared statement received Saturday morning, July 9, that it’s an issue of school safety.
“As the sheriff of Lee County, school safety is my top priority. Our youth services deputies and detectives do an amazing job to ensure the safety of our students and school staff. Any threats made, real or fake, will be immediately investigated and taken seriously,” Marceno stated.
Calls and e-mails to the LCSO today were not returned.
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com