Girl Sentenced To Rehab Program For Attempted Robbery
PONTIAC (WWJ) - A young Highland Township girl was sentenced, Tuesday, after admitting she tried to rob a bank.
Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan ordered the 12-year-old girl to enter a residential youth rehabilitation program.
She pled guilty to attempted armed robbery in mid-April.
WWJ's Pat Sweeting reported Judge Brennan acted upon the recommendation of a case worker who said it's very clear in the doctor's report that the girl was depressed and in need of psychiatric intervention.
On April 15, the girl entered a Highland Township party store, pointed a loaded gun at the clerk and demanded money. Earlier, family friends said the girl told them she did to it hopes of saving her family home from foreclosure.
Defense Attorney Fred Miller told reporters his client was forced to admit she wanted the money -- not to help her mother, as she had claimed -- but for herself and her friends.
"She had been taking money from her mother, is what the story was... Originally, she told people she was taking it to help her mother pay the mortgage. However, as you heard today, that wasn't the case as it was. She may have been wanting to give that to her mother, but she would have taken it right back to use for her own purpose," Miller said.
Before leaving the court room, the girl said she was sorry for the choices she had made.
The court will review her case in November.
