A JURY OF PEERS; YOUTHS METE JUSTICE IN TEEN COURT.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The thing about grown-ups - in this instance police, parents, prosecutors, probation officers, judges and jurors - is they've long forgotten what it's like to be young, foolish and overwhelmed by peer pressure.

So when kids get in trouble, the adults who decide their fate may not know what approach will most effectively turn those wayward youths around. Other people their age, however, just might.

That's part of the philosophy behind Teen Court, a collaboration between the city of Santa Clarita, Newhall Municipal Court, the Los Angeles County Probation Department and the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station. The idea is to divert young first-time offenders away from the juvenile justice system of incarceration and onto the path of redemption instead.

In Teen Court, local high school and junior high students sit in judgment of teens who have committed felonies or misdemeanors. Sheriff's deputies select arrestees as Teen Court candidates based on their likelihood of being reformed.

Instead of risking a criminal conviction, the specially chosen juvenile offenders can accept a sentence such as community service, apology and restitution to their victims, or a pledge to behave themselves in school and at home.

``You feel bad for them. But I think whatever we give them is good, because we don't want them to do it again,'' said Jennifer Oswald, 16. On Thursday, the Valencia High School junior served on a Teen Court jury that judged a boy who brought a knife to school.

Newhall Municipal Court Commissioner Thomas White later said the boy could have been in far worse trouble if he had brandished the weapon or threatened somebody with it.

Instead, jurors ruled the boy - whose name is withheld because he's a minor - should put in 80 hours of community service, take part in five Teen Court sessions as a juror, and write a two-page essay on the dangers of bringing weapons on campus.

White further instructed the youth, dressed in a dark suit, to complete his sentence by Aug. 25, and told him that authorities would probably destroy his knife.

``The guy who had the knife - come on, that's like bringing a gun,'' said juror Susie Semon, 16. The Valencia High sophomore, however, said she sympathized with him and figured youths should be forgiven the occasional bad choice.

Teen Court, Semon said, ``gives you a second chance to think about what you did wrong. Since we're teen-agers, we don't always know what we're doing.''

Deputy Alan Young, assigned to the juvenile crime unit at the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station, oversees the Teen Court program with Sgt. Lee White. The program was established in 1995 with Newhall Judge Floyd Baxter and retired county probation Officer Bob Siecke.

``We don't allow anyone like gang members to participate in the program,'' Young said. ``It's essentially for the good kid who made a stupid mistake. The program wouldn't be effective for somebody who's already way over the edge.''

Teen Court targets 13- to 18-year-olds, and typical offenses include petty theft, schoolyard fights, shoplifting, possession of small amounts of marijuana or alcohol, curfew violations, trespassing, truancies and vandalism, Young said.

Authorities maintain a pool of 50 to 60 teen jurors who hear one case per session, deliberate and then render their sentence. While one panel of six is deciding an offender's fate, another group of boys and girls is in the jury box hearing a case with a different defendant.

The proceedings are run with much of the same formality as a hearing in adult court. The jurors are instructed to sit up straight, refrain from laughing, talking and chewing gum, and to listen to the testimony in a respectful manner, displaying no reaction.

The young jurors run the gamut, from kids who've never run afoul of the law to those former Teen Court defendants who are serving to fulfill part of their sentence. During the hearings for each case, Siecke reads a summary of the offense, and jurors are allowed to question the youngster and his or her parents.

Lee White, who presided over Thursday's session of Teen Court, said the former defendants often make astute judges of those accused, sometimes grilling the youths and parents alike.

``I find that the kids who have been sentenced are very quick to ferret out any attitude and any falsifications: You mean your kid broke into a school and all you did was take away their TV privileges?'' White said, citing a typical query from a teen juror.

``If an offender is genuinely remorseful . . . then the sentence tends to be lighter,'' Young added.

On Thursday, a girl picked up for shoplifting a jacket and some lingerie from J.C. Penney on Jan. 23 faced a jury of her peers. After admitting her offense, the girl told the panel that goading from three friends was a factor in the crime.

Her father, seated beside the girl, added that she is more supervised now and is making financial restitution to the department store. ``Initially, she was grounded forever,'' the man said.

The jurors sentenced the girl to 95 hours of community service and directed her to write a letter of apology to J.C. Penney, along with a two-page essay on the consequences of stealing and peer pressure.

White ordered her to stay away from all J.C. Penney stores and suggested she not associate anymore with the three friends. He warned the youth that a juvenile court conviction on her record would have meant severe penalties - including county jail time - if she merely stole a stick of gum while still on probation for the shoplifting episode.

Young said that Teen Court defendants, as conditions of their sentence, also must attend school without absence, keep their grades up, refrain from drugs or alcohol, stay away from any place where people are using or selling drugs or alcohol, and sometimes attend court-ordered counseling.

``If they do all this, the offense is completely erased from their record,'' Young said.

Seventh-grader Andrew Iwanicki, 12, said he volunteered for Teen Court as a community service project for the California Junior Scholastic Federation. Besides, the Placerita Junior High student said he wants to be an attorney some day.

``It's a good program because (Teen Court) is a little more lenient,'' Andrew said.

His classmate and fellow juror Danny Caravalho, 13, said he hopes the young offenders ``learn a lesson, that they shouldn't commit a crime again.''

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4 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Teen-age jurors are sworn in for Teen Court at the Newhall Municipal Court, where young first-time offenders face the judgment of peers.

(2--Color) Deputy Alan Young checks in on 16-year-old foreman Gus Caravalho, left, and other teen jurors deliberating a case in Newhall.

(3) Christina Roberts, 16, reads the jury's verdict in Teen Court while Deputy Alan Young takes notes.

(4) A deliberating Teen Court juror examines an evidence picture.

David R. Crane/Daily News