Youths held in separate facilities

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August 27, 2010

Sandra K Reabuck sreabuck@tribdem.com The Tribune-Democrat Fri Aug 27, 2010, 10:42 PM EDT

JOHNSTOWN — The two juveniles who went on a crime spree of stealing vehicles after walking away from a youth shelter are now housed in separate detention facilities and face criminal charges in the juvenile justice system.

On Friday, Cambria County Judge David Tulowitzki ordered that 17-year-old Jamie Blough of Adams Township will continue to be held at the county Juvenile Detention Center near Ebensburg. At this time, Blough faces only a charge of escape.

The second youth – also 17 and a Meyersdale resident whose identity has not been released by authorities – is being held at Central Counties Youth Detention Center in Centre County awaiting a detention hearing Monday in Somerset County court.

The two teens ran away from the Cambria County Emergency Shelter for Youth outside of Ebensburg shortly before 11:30 p.m. Aug. 20, Craig Cavalet, a juvenile probation officer, said during Blough’s hearing.

“It was near the shift change. Jamie and a second male decided to run. They were able to exit the back door, and the staff was not able to catch the two juveniles,” Cavalet testified.

Blough had been placed in the emergency shelter after funding for his drug-and-alcohol treatment at an Abraxas facility was ending because of a “failure to adjust,” the probation officer said. The juvenile probation staff was attempting to place him in another treatment facility, Cavalet said.

Because area police are still drawing up criminal charges against Blough in the motor vehicle thefts, Tulowitzki said an adjudication hearing on those charges would not be held until Sept. 8.

At an adjudication hearing, prosecutors present evidence of the alleged crimes, with the judge then deciding whether the juvenile is delinquent, a finding similar to guilt in an adult court.

Assistant District Attorney Tom Leiden said that a decision has not yet been made on whether prosecutors will seek to have Blough stand trial as an adult. The charges will be filed – at least initially – as juvenile offenses, Leiden said.

State police at Somerset have filed a theft of motor vehicle charge against the Meyersdale youth, District Attorney Jerry Spangler said Friday. That’s the lone charge filed so far in Somerset County, he said.

Somerset County also has not yet made a decision on whether the charges eventually will be handled through the juvenile or adult criminal justice system, he said.

The Somerset youth reportedly does not face an escape charge because he had been placed in the emergency shelter as a dependent teen, not as a delinquent offender.

Authorities believe that the two youths stole more than a dozen vehicles in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia after they ran away from the emergency shelter.

Blough was apprehended Wednesday evening in Johns-town, while the Somerset youth was taken into custody Thursday on a bike trail in Summit Township in Somerset County.

The emergency shelter – situated in the same building as the Cambria County Juvenile Detention Home – is not a secure facility like the detention home.

Children who have been declared by a judge as dependent or neglected are housed in the shelter facility.

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