Should guardians be responsible for the child’s illegal activities?

Should parents and legal guardians be arrested for their child’s illegal activities? Depending on the circumstances, it takes precedence.

But what about grandmother or great-grandmother? That’s what happened this month in Wayne County. This Tuesday evening, two grandparents must appear in court.

“They’re roaming the streets, unsupervised from morning until night,” Palmyra Police Chief Kyle Dinardo said of two juveniles who he said have racked up a record of criminal activity there. “They’re not in school for whatever reason.”

Dinardo says the crimes started as violations, turned into misdemeanors and have now reached felony status. He says his department has been interacting with 13- and 14-year-olds for the past year and more recently.

“They were arrested,” Dinardo said. “I think in total they have six to eight charges pending right now, including probably 30 complaints that they are involved in.”

Complaints and charges include criminal mischief, trespassing, burglary, damage to property, graffiti and much more.

“They are doing things that are not only dangerous to the community, but also to themselves,” Dinardo said. “They’re on top of buildings. They’re shouting obscenities. They’re climbing bridges over water 30 to 40 feet high. They’re trespassing on property – private property.”

He said his department has been in communication several times with the children’s legal guardians, who are not related.

“Both legal guardians have been warned when they do not supervise their children and do not accept the services we offer,” Dinardo said.

Now each child’s legal guardians, a grandmother and great-grandmother, are under arrest.

Janet Heaven and Wanda Milner are each charged with one count of endangering the welfare of a child.

“So it’s not really the actions of the grandparents, it’s the lack of action of the grandparents,” the chief said.

“You open Pandora’s box if you start criminally charging parents for their children’s behavior,” said defense attorney and former county Supreme Court Justice John DeMarco.

DeMarco says these types of cases are typically handled in family court.

“I absolutely think this is not the right way to go,” DeMarco said. “And I think the courts are just not going to be able to handle the volume. And I think the prosecution – in a vacuum – is going to be extremely difficult to prove that these parents knew or should have known that these children were engaging to these specific acts.

But Dinardo believes this may be the right step to take.

“Being a police chief is difficult,” he said. “I have to look after the whole community. Yeah, I feel bad. I mean, I don’t want to stop the grandparents. But the community wants something done.