Clark County to prosecute 9-year-old boy

      Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell's office will go forward with the prosecution of a 9-year-old boy accused of vandalizing a city block of freshly poured concrete.
      Bell said Wednesday that despite the media frenzy concerning the arrest of Jeremy Anderson, the felony charge against the Las Vegas boy should proceed to trial in Clark County Juvenile Court.
      A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for April 21.
      Letting Anderson off the hook because of media attention, which was generated by the boy's mother, would send the wrong message to the youth, his peers and the community, Bell said.
      "A defendant's media blitz attempting to deflect the issue to avoid accountability for alleged criminal conduct cannot be the fulcrum upon which justice in this county is based," Bell said in a press release.
      Anderson, a student at McMillan Elementary School, was arrested at school by Las Vegas police on Jan. 28 after a lengthy investigation into the destruction of a 350-foot stretch of sidewalk on Washington Avenue in northwest Las Vegas. Anderson has admitted to authorities he wrote in the concrete, but told his mother and police that he was invited to do so by a construction worker at the scene. As of Wednesday, no one had located or been able to identify the construction worker.
      Anderson's mother, Barbara, has expressed outrage over the arrest, saying police should have contacted her before taking her son into custody.
      Barbara Anderson also claimed police acted inappropriately by allowing her son to be strip searched at the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center. She has contended that the charge against her son should be dropped because of the way police handled the case.
      Shortly after the case started to receive national media attention, the victim in the case, Richard Plaster, requested that the charge be dropped. He then submitted a written request to prosecutors asking they "reconsider" their decision.
      Plaster is the owner of Plaster Development Co., and claims he suffered more than $8,000 in damages.
      Plaster said Wednesday afternoon he understands Bell's decision.
      "This is not my fight," Plaster said. "This has become the community's fight and the community needs to answer if it wants to tolerate these sort of activities (vandalism)," Plaster said.
      Barbara Anderson declined comment Wednesday. Her Las Vegas attorney, Robert Kossack, said he and the Anderson family are extremely disappointed with Bell's decision. Kossack pointed to an earlier quote by Bell in the Review-Journal in which he said prosecutors would honor such a request by Plaster if it were made.
      "It appears as if they (prosecutors) are taking an unscientific telephone opinion poll, tallying votes by people expressing an opinion to their office about this case," Kossack said. "I don't think that is the way a district attorney's office should be run."
      Said Bell: "The system is going to work the way it is supposed to. The real negative in all this is this office files some 300 cases a day, against both adults and juveniles, involving various levels of felonies. Yet this case has generated more media attention and interest than the cases in which the perpetrator is a much greater threat to the community. The proper perspective has been lost."
      Police have continually maintained they did nothing wrong, and have publicly questioned Barbara Anderson's account of the events leading to the arrest. Las Vegas police Capt. Charles Davidaitis said Barbara Anderson was aware of the investigation more than a month before the arrest, and that detectives left a written note on her door asking her to contact police.
      On the day of the arrest, police say they and school officials tried repeatedly to contact Barbara Anderson without success. At least one of the phone numbers she left with the school was no longer valid, Davidaitis said. Also, during the strip search, Jeremy Anderson was ordered to disrobe only to his underwear.