ENTERPRISE — A 17-year-old held on weapons charges and charges of conspiracy to commit murder and other crimes was ordered to be released from custody on Thursday, Sept. 21, but only on the strict conditions set by Wallowa County Circuit Judge Thomas Powers.

The juvenile is alleged to have conspired with three other youths in Tennessee to commit the crimes; those youths are now on pretrial release, said Rebecca Frolander, Wallowa County’s district attorney, during a court hearing in the case Wednesday, Sept. 20.

But she still wasn’t prepared to ask for the youth’s release.

“If an adult had been charged with these crimes they would be felonies. The youth needs to be held to protect the victims. … He was engaged in conversations with three other youths who were planning the crimes in the state of Tennessee and here in Oregon,” she said to the judge during a Sept. 6 hearing. “The targets of those incidences were minority groups. They were targeting mosques, synagogues and LGBTQIA rallies and the youth had expressed that he had targeted people in Wallowa County … specifically targeting schools in our community.”

It was not made clear how a boy in Oregon and three others in Tennessee were expecting to get together to commit the crimes, though they were in contact via the internet.

When he was arrested Aug. 24 by Enterprise Police, the juvenile was charged with the unlawful transfer of a firearm, conspiracy to unlawfully use a firearm, first-degree conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit one count of a bias crime. He was arrested at the Wallowa County Justice Center where he was on an unrelated matter.

Strict conditions

Powers heard arguments about releasing the youth from custody from Frolander and the juvenile’s attorney, Jared Boyd. The judge said his decisions needed to ensure the safety of the teen, the safety of the community and increase the likelihood that the boy will appear for future court appearances.

“Detention obviously mitigates all of those concerns,” Powers said, but juvenile cases have strict rules and timelines.

“When decisions are made that turn out all right, you don’t hear about them. But when decisions are made that turn out bad, you certainly hear about them,” he said. “I have to sit back and look at the direction that Oregon law gives me for juveniles in detention and the things to consider.”

Powers ordered the youth be released under the following conditions:

• He is confined to his house and his yard unless permission is granted from the county Juvenile Department and the court. The only permission to leave will be for an emergency such as a medical one.

• He must wear a GPS monitoring device on his ankle. The expense of this will be borne by the family. Frolander urged the monitoring device be placed on the juvenile in Union County, where he is detained. Powers said he can only return to Wallowa County if he is wearing the monitoring device.

• He must remain within sight and sound of a parent.

• He is not allowed to have contact with any school property in Wallowa County.

• No firearms, weapons or ammunition are to be accessible to the youth. His parents were advised to make another run-through of their house and outbuildings to ensure no weapons were available.

• He is not allowed to have a presence on social media nor access to internet connectivity other than the Chromebook he is allowed to use to continue his education.

• Boyd asked for cellphone access to contact his client to continue his defense, which the judge allowed. He noted that attorney-client privilege doesn’t extend to the parents, so they don’t have to monitor the teen’s conversations with his attorney.

The judge arranged for his parents to drive to Union County on Sept. 21 to pick up their son and take him to get the GPS monitoring device attached. That also would give Frolander time to get paperwork done for the judge to sign.

Defense stymied

The Sept. 20 hearing started with what was supposed to be an admit/deny hearing, the juvenile version of a plea hearing. However, Boyd said difficulties in his receiving discovery evidence from Frolander made it impossible to enter an admission or denial.

“We’re just not prepared at this point,” he said.

Boyd said that it has taken a long time for the prosecution to provide the discovery evidence.

Frolander said that when Wallowa County changed its email server it led to numerous technical difficulties that are only now being resolved. She said a report from Enterprise Police Chief Kevin McQuead was received by her office Sept. 11 and Boyd got it two days later.

“I am now finally in possession of discovery,” Boyd said, but he’d asked for it in late August and didn’t get it until Sept. 13. “I was told by the state they were ‘processing’ this, whatever that means. It took them two and a half weeks for them to ‘process’ it. It’s really about 20 minutes worth of work. I don’t know of any fax issues. It could’ve gone through the DA’s office. It could’ve been mailed.”

Home visit

Powers noted that since the boy has been in custody for 20 days, the state has a responsibility to reconsider releasing him as quickly as possible. On Sept. 6, the judge asked Mandy Decker, the director of Wallowa County Juvenile Services, to make a home visit and determine if the teen coiuld be safely released to his parents there.

Decker said she made the visit Sept. 8 and other than the parents’ cellphones, there were no two-way internet-accessible devices, only items such as televisions. The parents were urged to keep close tabs on their phones and change passwords regularly. But she did find weapons on the premises.

“In an outbuilding outside the home, there were six guns, five BB guns” and other weapons, she said.

The presence of the weapons concerned Frolander, who said the teen told authorities that “he was supposed to bring the vehicle and the guns” to whatever event the youths were planning, “and he would be the getaway driver. He acknowledged that he did have access to a vehicle and he did have access to guns.”