Troubled past follows man arrested in car thefts

From: Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, FL - 21 Feb 2003

By Jon Burstein
Staff Writer

He once was held up as the poster child for everything wrong with Florida's juvenile justice system: a mentally disabled, hearing-impaired teenager charged as an adult for stealing $2 from a classmate.

Prosecutors ended up dropping the strong-arm robbery case against 15-year-old Anthony Laster, but not before he spent seven weeks in the Palm Beach County Jail. He missed his mother's funeral and spent Christmas Day 1998 in jail. The Boynton Beach teenager's case prompted outraged newspaper editorials across the country and a "60 Minutes" camera crew to show up at one of his court hearings.

Now 19, Laster was back in a Palm Beach County courtroom Thursday morning -- but this time as an adult facing adult charges.

He is accused of stealing two cars on Nov. 9 with a friend. Delray Beach police arrested him at gunpoint after he was caught driving one of the stolen cars, according to court documents.

Laster got out of jail on his own recognizance, but was arrested again Feb. 3 after he failed to check in with pretrial-services officials. He spent 17 days in jail on a $6,000 bond, but his attorney persuaded a judge Thursday to allow Laster out again without posting bond. He was set to be released from the jail late Thursday night.

His sister, Carolyn Laster, said her younger brother's first jail experience scarred him and he is numb to what's happening now.

"After everything they did to him back in 1998, they didn't assure him that what happened wasn't his fault," Carolyn Laster said. "They put him in (jail) for nothing. It changed him. He was innocent. Now this is a totally different thing."

She said that after the fanfare of her brother's first case died down, he never got the help he needed. He has the IQ of a 5-year-old, needs to wear a hearing aid and needs physical therapy because he limps, she said.

"I really think if they would have given him the help when this (the 1998 case) happened, he would be a better person and in a better situation than he is right now," Carolyn Laster said.

Her brother was in a group home for a while, but he has been bouncing around among relatives for most of the past four years, she said.

John Walsh, Anthony Laster's attorney in the 1998 case, said the teenager appears to have slipped through the cracks of the state's child-welfare system.

"It's tragic because you don't know if (the most recent case) could have been prevented," said Walsh, an attorney with the Palm Beach County Legal Aid Society.

Palm Beach County School Board police arrested Anthony Laster on Dec. 1, 1998, after he grabbed two $1 bills out of a Congress Middle School classmate's pocket. He told police he was hungry and spent the money on candy.

His bond was set at $5,000, but his family -- still reeling from his mother's death -- couldn't get the money together. After seven weeks, his mother's life insurance policy was redeemed and he used his entire inheritance to get out of jail.

State Attorney Barry Krischer held steadfast to charging Anthony Laster as an adult, saying it sent the message that schoolyard violence would not be tolerated. But his office dropped the case after the victim said he wasn't afraid when Laster took his money.

The State Attorney's Office declined to comment on Anthony Laster's most recent arrest. The teenager faces two counts of grand theft and one count of possession of burglary tool. Each carries up to five years in prison.

Carolyn Laster attempted to sue the Palm Beach County School Board over her brother's arrest, but a judge dismissed the lawsuit last month.

Jon Burstein can be reached at jburstein@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2895.

Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel