Teen accused of Milford High threat gets

Mike Martindale, The Detroit News 1:20 p.m. EDT March 12, 2015 This story has been updated to clarify the Probate trial procedure.

Pontiac — A 14-year-old Highland Township boy was granted a bench trial Monday to determine the seriousness of alleged Internet threats he admits making last month to "kill everyone" at Milford High School.

The teen is being prosecuted as a juvenile in Oakland County Probate Court for making a false threat of terrorism and use of a computer to commit a crime. Both are felonies that carry up to 20-year prison sentences for adults, but juveniles convicted of the same crime cannot be held in a juvenile facility past their 19th birthday.

The teen, held in Children's Village without bond, appeared Monday before Elizabeth Pezzetti, who agreed to hear the matter in a bench trial she set for April 13. A bench trial is standard procedure in Probate Court unless a trial is formally requested. After conferring with the family, defense attorney Deanna Kelley chose a bench trial when the judge offered a choice on Monday.

Kelley, who first conferred with the teen and his parents, requested a psychiatrist be allowed into Children's Village to assess her client to determine risk, a factor in obtaining bond.

"This is a very unfortunate situation," Kelley told Pezzetti. "I would like him to return home ... I don't mean to downplay the seriousness but I also think there is much less to (these charges)."

Assistant prosecutor Adam Nael said investigators have obtained the teen's phone and are examining it for calls, and presumably multiple threats, directed at the school.

Investigators from the Oakland County 's Office say the teen — a freshman at the school — sent out a group text warning to students not to go to school on a particular Monday because he was going to "Columbine this s---."

Milford Police took the obtained threats from a student and investigators interviewed others who told them the teen had made similar verbal threats over a two-week period last month. The teen, who has no criminal history, sent messages under his Internet persona "Adolph Hitler." The teen, who has a fascination with Nazi and Third Reich history, admitted to police he sent the text by phone explaining he was depressed over a recent break up with a girlfriend. He said he felt like a loner and suffered from depression and anxiety.

During Monday's brief hearing he was brought in dressed in green jail garb, belly chains and leg irons. He appeared frail, and could be heard sniffling, his head bowed forward and his body shaking in sobs. Kelley patted him on the back and tried to console him. As deputies led him out of the courtroom his face screwed up at the sight of his parents seated nearby, and he began to weep again.

Police seized nine firearms in the teen's home — all registered to his father — which he apparently has access to, according to investigators. The family told investigators all ammunition is kept locked up.

A 17-year-old Brandon High School student is being sentenced as an adult later this week in Oakland Circuit Court for a similar crime at his school.

Jacob Young, a Brandon senior, boasted on an After School app in December he planned an event at his school that would be "bigger than Columbine." Young of Ortonville has pleaded no contest before Judge Wendy Potts to making the threats, which included posting "Tomorrow Im gonna shoot and kill every last one of you ... " and "Im warning all of you Im gonning to shoot up the school so if you know what good for you stay home".

The postings included someone holding a shotgun and wearing a T-shirt that read "Natural Selection."

Young, who claims he was bullied at his school because he is bi-racial, was upset by other bullying posts he read toward other students on a social website used by about one-third of the school's students. His intent, according to his attorney, was to have the site shut down.

That was accomplished, along with a two-day lockdown at the school, putting the community on edge and prompting dozens of frightened students to stay home from school. [email protected]

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