The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

'Initiation rites' go awry at Monta Vista

By Pam Marino

Additional felony charges were filed Monday against two Monta Vista High School students who were arrested last month after at least two fellow students were assaulted.

An attorney for one of the suspects called the incidents "initiation rites" that got "out of balance." The deputy district attorney in charge of the case called the same incidents "dangerous" and "very offensive."

The two suspects, a 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, were arrested Nov. 26 after an on-campus assault on a 16-year-old female student and have remained in custody since then. At a hearing in juvenile court on Monday the students unsuccessfully sought release to be home for Christmas. The case was continued to Jan. 6, which will be a pretrial hearing.

Originally the two were charged with assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, false imprisonment and kidnapping; the female suspect was additionally charged with carjacking and robbery. Upon further investigation, the District Attorney's office added additional charges of false imprisonment and kidnapping for another incident involving the same victim, and false imprisonment in an incident against another student.

Deputy District Attorney Rick Gardner said the charges are "subject to extension," if additional victims are found.

In the assault against the girl, the victim was bound with duct tape, had a hair-removal product sprayed in her hair and was left in a darkened boys' bathroom. Her car was also stolen.

The other victim, identified only as a teenage boy, was tied up and left on a sloping roof, in danger of falling off, Gardner said.

Gardner called the case "odd," because he said teen crime usually involves male victims and male perpetrators.

The attorney for the female suspect, Sam Polverino, called the case "unfortunate for all concerned," but disagreed that it warranted the felony charges that have been filed.

"These kids are not the monsters they are being painted as," he said. "This involves excellent kids who let some initiation rites get out of balance," Polverino said Monday. He did not elaborate on what sort of rites, or what the initiation was for.

The male suspect's attorney could not be reached for comment.

The two suspects have also been charged with malicious mischief in a separate incident where a teacher's home front door was tampered with. Gardner said the two had a disagreement with the teacher, and later that day the teacher discovered that a sticky substance had been squeezed into the lock, making it inoperable.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 24, 1997.
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