Cody Webb and his mother.
Fifteen-year-old Cody Webb, of Greensburg, “called a school district hot line to listen to a recorded message about school delays at 3:12am EDT on 11 March”, his mobile phone records later revealed. The next morning, school officials discovered said bomb threat logged at 3:17am.
The powers that be therefore concluded that “Webb had made the threat because they also found a record of his phone call”, the lad’s attorney Tim Andrews explained. The school’s principal confirmed his guilt by asking Webb for his cell phone number later that morning and then quickly declared: “We got him. We got him.”
Webb refused to confess, was arrested “on a felony charge of threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and related misdemeanor counts” and thrown into Westmoreland County Juvenile Detention Centre for 12 days until the truth was revealed.
In fact, because the school had not reset the clock on the hot line, which continued to show Eastern Standard Time, officials and police failed to spot that the bomb threat had actually come in at 4:17am – more than an hour after Webb’s innocent call.
Andrews explained: “The district attorney subpoenaed the cell phone records, and it didn’t take more than a minute to see the times didn’t match.”
Webb was finally released “when a state trooper failed to show up at another hearing”. The charges were dropped on 27 March.
And I love how the principal is teaching her students important concepts such as being considered innocent until proven guilty…
‘They just started flipping out, saying I made a bomb threat to the school,’ he told local television station KDKA. After he protested his innocence, Webb says that the principal said: ‘Well, why should we believe you? You’re a criminal. Criminals lie all the time.’
Here’s a link to Principal Kathy Charlton’s website.
i also emailed her, telling her what a stupid bitch she was and i hope she gets sued 3 wyas from sunday.
The neo conservative WACKOS in power in this country better enjoy their 15 minutes of fame. Because when 2008 rolls around there will be nothing left of the fringe far-right conservative party other than the unpleasant memories of how they’ve destroyed this country and the middle east over the past 7 years.
My guess: She isn’t apologizing because the school’s lawyers told her that would be an admission of error. The kid’s parents have already engaged a lawyer (as well they should), and I hope they sue hell out of, not just the school and half-wit principal, but the entire city and, if the juvenile detention place is county-run, include them too.
The whole thing was a concatenated error of official negligence, probably compounded by everybody refusing to set the kid free out of fear of becoming personally involved. A good strong lawsuit would at least make it clear that the whole system WAS involved and some serious rights violations resulted from their negligence.
Didn’t reset the clock. Didn’t bother to check the facts about the originating call. Day-after quarterbacking? I don’t think so. Not when an innocent kid spent nearly TWO WEEKS in lockup over the school district’s mistake and the police department’s incompetence.
As for the principal, she should be told she’s incompetent and she’s lying about why she had the kid locked up because incompetent idiots lie all the time.
I think Mr. Webb should sue for wrongful detainment/imprisonment and get a real life lesson in how our court system works.
2 Master’s, graduate, and one undergraduate degree and Mrs. Charlton is still inept. Goes to show they’ll give a degree to anyone nowadays.
I sent her a terse email as well. Doubt she has learned anything.
Judging by the updated picture, the kid needs a comb. He also thinks he’s a girl, you can tell by the ear ornament.
It’s funny that the same blogs that keeps posting “blame the lawyers” over and over is now cheerleading to sue every deep pocket in the blast radius.
Not that I don’t agree, but its still sort of funny… I guess what we’ve learned here is that we don’t really have well informed opinions about issues… we just like to bitch about everyone but ourselves…
Hmmmmm.
Fusion #30
I get your point… But here is my point. People are stupid. A person, you, me, John Dvorak, the woman who serves me deli sandwiches at lunch, is smart… But people are dumb as bricks. The principal should be expected to rationally and logically assess and handle a situation like the one she enhcountered without going off the deepend like a loonbat. If we can’t trust her to manage an emergency like that, we can’t trust her to be in a position of authority and she needs to be removed.
The mob, with thier pitchforks and torches, are idiots and should be dismissed out of hand. She acted like a zombie in a mob, not like a responsible leader.
wait a minute….innocent until proven guilty? that’s so 1960’s…
but seriously tho, folks….we have to be careful these days. Just because you have a right doesn’t mean that those in power can’t take it away from you at a moment’s notice. Remember, if you don’t have the power, then you are worthless in the eyes of those that do.
The moron principal’s attitude brings to mind a related one which I see all the time here in Texas –
Innocent person gets railroaded. Is convicted. Continues to assert innocence. Receives stiffest sentence because protests of innocence show “lack of remorse.”
The ‘Nifonging’ of the justice industry is well under way, and probably unstoppable by now…
I’m late to the game but I sent the moron a email too.