Girls won't be prosecuted after bomb squad called on art project
Charges will not be filed against six juvenile girls who placed brightly wrapped boxes at several locations in Ravenna on March 31, Portage County Prosecutor Victor V. Vigluicci said today.
The Portage County Hazardous Materials Unit and Bomb Detection Unit were called to downtown Ravenna after numerous packages wrapped in gold paper with question marks sprayed on them were found.
``The girls were imitating an art project which they found on the Internet,'' the prosecutor said. ``None of the girls had any prior contacts with the police or juvenile court and are all good students.''
The prosecutor said all the girls and parents made statements to the police when they learned their actions brought out a response by law enforcement officials.
``I do not believe that they had any bad or malicious intentions,'' he said.
The girls ``were not thinking about the consequences of their actions in this day and age,'' he said.
The prosecutor said all of the girls will write letters of apology to each of the law enforcement agencies who responded to the suspicious packages.
Boxes were found at the Immaculate Conception Church on West Main Street, the Portage County Courthouse, Deluxe Pastries, the corner of Cherry Way and Main Street, Reed Memorial Library, Ravenna High School and a residence at Sanford and Main Streets.
The hazardous material and bomb units responded to the packages, Vigluicci said, ``exactly as they are trained to do and followed all of the protocols which have been adopted since Sept. 11 involving suspicious packages in public places.''
The boxes were made to resemble ``question boxes'' from the video game Mario Bros., the prosecutor said.
