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Accused Estero High pranksters plead not guilty
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After a night of vandalism left the grounds of Estero High School in disarray during the final week of classes, the school’s principal, George Clover, called for those responsible to be prosecuted as strongly as possible.
Several students were arrested that week after an estimated $10,000 in property damage was done to the River Ranch Road campus, but those facing charges are maintaining their innocence.
Three of the students, Steve Luna, 19; Endal Zuniga, 18, and Omar Gonzalez, 18, all face five charges: one count of armed burglary, two counts of grand theft of a fire extinguisher, one count of petty theft and one count of unlawful use of a two-way communications device.
They all pleaded not guilty to those charges this week.
Four of the charges are felonies.
The teenagers also were arrested on an additional offense — that they had been wearing masks while doing the vandalism, but the State Attorney’s office didn’t charge any of the men with that.
Five students in all, some juveniles, were arrested. Some of those arrested were graduating seniors. All were from Bonita Springs.
Dumped paint, upended vending machines and outlines of “bodies” on the ground were among the acts of vandalism other students saw when arriving at the high school after the Memorial Day weekend. Trash cans were overturned. The walls were covered with depictions of cartoon characters, genitalia and remarks about various school employees.
At the time, investigators speculated the students involved had been hoping the “prank” would win them exposure on an MTV show, “High School Stories.”
Their cases will next be heard in court in late August — about the time classes begin again at the high school.
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Boyz will be boyz. Come on, give the kids a break. They were just trying to get on a TV show. Haven't we learned what happens when trying to prosecute juveniles doing pranks?
Maybe the parents could pay 10 times the estimated damages to the school district to make all of this go away.
Either that, or pay the lawyers 10 times the estimated damages to make this go away.
It will go away.
#1 Posted by volochine on July 5, 2008 at 1:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Does anybody know if these vandals were allowed to graduate?
#2 Posted by RockfordGrad on July 5, 2008 at 9:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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