Boy to Be Tried for Writing in Cement

LAS VEGAS — He has been arrested, strip-searched, charged with a felony, and now, 9-year-old Jeremy Anderson is headed for trial--all because he wrote his name in wet cement.

Jeremy’s lawyer, Robert Kossack, entered a not guilty plea Tuesday on behalf of his young client, who is charged with malicious destruction of property valued at more than $5,000.

“I think it’s outrageous. I think the charge is ludicrous. The whole thing has been mishandled,” said Jeremy’s mother, Barbara Anderson, 34.

In November, Jeremy and some friends were on their way home from school when he says a construction worker showed them a freshly poured cement sidewalk and asked them if they wanted to write their names in it.

“The man said I could, so I did,” said Jeremy, who has won citizenship awards at his elementary school.

He and his friends wrote their names and made hand and footprints in about 20 feet of sidewalk near Jeremy’s condominium complex in northeast Las Vegas.

A few weeks later, a contractor from Plaster Development Co. contacted Barbara Anderson, saying she owed $11,000 because the company would have to re-lay the sidewalk.

She forgot about the incident until Jan. 28, when Jeremy didn’t come home on the school bus. She called McMillan Elementary School and was told that Las Vegas Metro Police had taken Jeremy.

Barbara Anderson went to Juvenile Hall and watched as her son was read his rights. She was told that a bench warrant had been issued for Jeremy’s arrest and that her son signed an admission-of-guilt form and waived his rights to an attorney.

“He has no idea what an attorney is,” she said.

Jeremy was also strip-searched before being placed in a holding cell with older juveniles.

Kirby Burgess, director of Clark County’s Family and Youth Services, said that booking a child into Juvenile Hall involves strip searches.

“It’s gone above and beyond anything that’s reasonable in justice. This is not justice,” Barbara Anderson said.

Metro Police and Clark County Juvenile Hall officials cannot comment on Jeremy’s case because he is a minor.