By Paul J. Weber The Associated Press March 30, 2007, 5:26PM
DALLAS - Shaquanda Cotton, the black teenager whose sentence to a juvenile prison for pushing a teacher's aide roiled civil rights activists nationwide and set off accusations of bias, won her freedom Friday, a state lawmaker said.
Rep. Harold Dutton, the Houston Democrat who chairs the House juvenile justice committee, said the newly appointed conservator of the embattled Texas Youth Commission told him Cotton was being released after 12 months in a Brownwood facility.
Dutton said she will be released Saturday to her mother, who he said was unable to pick up her daughter Friday because of bad weather.
"This is one of those cases that is the poster child of everything wrong with the criminal justice system," Dutton said.
Dutton said he was informed of Cotton's pending release by Jay Kimbrough, whom Gov. Rick Perry appointed to investigate the agency accused of ignoring multiple allegations of sexual and physical abuse of young inmates.
Texas Youth Commission spokesman Jim Hurley said he could not talk about specific cases.
Cotton, 15, was sentenced on a felony count of shoving the teacher's aide, who is classified as a public servant, before the morning bell at Paris High School in 2005. Activists say the fact that the same judge sentenced a white 14-year-old girl to probation for arson signaled evidence of racial bias in the East Texas town on the Oklahoma border.
Prosecutors in Cotton's case, who said they were told Friday morning by the TYC that Shaquanda had not met the agency's standards for release, expressed surprise at Dutton's news.
"Apparently now, cases that get the most attention from screaming activists can grab the ear of state legislators who can simply order people to be freed from incarceration," said Allan Hubbard, a spokesman for the Lamar County district attorney's office. "That could be dangerous."
Cotton was eligible to be released on March 17 but had not met the agency's standards for release governing academics, behavior and "correctional therapy," Hubbard said.
Creola Cotton could not be immediately reached for comment.
Cotton's stay at the Ron Jackson Correctional Complex in Brownwood, about 300 miles from her Paris home, drew national attention following a Chicago Tribune story this month. Supporters have held two protests at the county courthouse in as many weeks, and Hubbard said Rev. Al Sharpton was scheduled to come to the city Tuesday.
Also fanning the racial flames in Paris, a city of about 26,000, are eight federal investigation into the city's school district for civil rights violations. The U.S. Department of Education found no evidence of discrimination in three cases, and the five others remain open.
Prosecutors say they offered Shaquandra a plea agreement that would have reduced the felony charge to a misdemeanor and given her two years probation. But Creola Cotton rejected the plea on behalf of her daughter, prosecutors said.
They have also downplayed the similarity of Shaquanda's case with the white arsonist who burned down her house, saying a family member stepped forward and was willing to meet terms of probation. The girl later violated her probation and was also sent to a TYC facility, Hubbard said.
Judge Chuck Superville, who sentenced both teenagers, has said witness testimony indicated that Creola Cotton wouldn't cooperate with probation requirements if her daughter was released back into her custody.
Superville gave Shaquanda an indefinite sentence, but she had to stay at least 12 months given the severity of her offense. Earlier this month, Kimbrough said he would assemble a panel to review records of all youth inmates to make sure their records hadn't been extended unfairly.
Sen. Royce West, a Dallas Democrat who also worked to win Cotton's pending release, called the release long overdue.
"I would characterize this as the end of a sad chapter in her life," West said. "The question is, what impact is this going to have on the rest of her life?"
Hubbard said what worries the county the most is that Shaquanda didn't stay long enough to be fully rehabilitated.
"If she did not learn her lesson, we fear we will see Ms. Cotton again in the prosecutor's office," Hubbard said. "We pray that may not happen."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/4676174.html
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