LITTLE ROCK — Mitchell Johnson, one of two boys convicted in state juvenile court in the 1998 shooting deaths of four students and a teacher at Westside Middle School near Jonesboro, was back in federal court Wednesday, where he faces federal charges related to the shootings.
This time Johnson spent about an hour in U.S. District Judge George Howard Jr.'s locked courtroom.
The nature of the hearing wasn't disclosed by any of the people who later emerged from the courtroom, including U.S. Attorney Paula Casey, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Alexander, state Department of Human Services attorney Laura Partlow, defense attorney Mike Roberts of Memphis or Johnson's parents, Gretchen Woodard and Scott Johnson.
After Casey, Alexander and Partlow left the courtroom, Mitchell Johnson, his parents and his lawyer, among others, were glimpsed through a briefly opened door, still sitting around a courtroom table.
Johnson, 15, was again escorted to and from the courtroom under tight security by federal marshals. He also attended proceedings in the building Sept. 3 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerry Cavaneau, who one week before that had presided over a hearing for Andrew Golden, 13, Johnson's counterpart in the school shootings.
Later on Sept. 3, Casey confirmed in a written news release that she said had been approved by the court to say that "the United States has instituted juvenile proceedings as a result of the shootings" that occurred March 24, 1998.
Casey's Sept. 3 statement noted that "federal law constrains dissemination of information about juvenile proceedings in federal court," and the statement said that "no further information will be released."
Federal criminal cases usually begin in front of a magistrate judge, who hears initial proceedings and other matters, and then proceed to a district judge for larger pretrial issues and eventually for trial.
Citing an unwillingness to violate any court orders, Roberts wouldn't even identify himself when he came out of the courtroom Wednesday. Woodard merely shook her head and politely muttered "no" when asked if she could comment. Scott Johnson smiled and said nothing.
Joe Quinn, spokesman for the state Department of Human Services, wouldn't comment later Wednesday about Partlow's attendance at the hearing.
On Sept. 3, Jonesboro attorney Randel Miller, who is representing Johnson in a civil lawsuit brought by relatives of shooting victims, said he had talked with Johnson on the telephone and thought the boy would be charged with three federal counts concerning bringing weapons onto school grounds.
Though some initially speculated that federal charges were being brought to ensure that the boys remained locked up after their 18th birthdays, the age at which the state traditionally has had to release young offenders for lack of a holding facility, Quinn said Sept. 3 that that's no longer a question. He said that, as of July, the state now has a place to hold the boys until they are 21 -- and will do so.
As in state court, offenders convicted as juveniles in federal court cannot be held beyond age 21.
Andrew was 11 and Johnson was 13 when they set off a fire alarm at the school and then fired a barrage from a wooded hillside as students and teachers left the building and lined up on sidewalks for what they believed was a fire drill.
Four female students and a female teacher were killed, and 10 others were injured.
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