Bucks boy, 11, gets probation over burglary

A Bucks County fifth grader charged with burglarizing the home of a senior county prosecutor was placed on probation yesterday.

But even as Joseph Ramos went home with his mother and older brother, controversy continued to flare over the handling of the boy's case. Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons and defense attorney Andrew Schneider jousted over whether Gibbons had first ignored a glaring conflict of interest in charging Joseph, and later unfairly smeared his reputation.

The child appeared briefly in juvenile court, where a judge approved him for a six- to 12-month pretrial probation program. Among the conditions of the agreement, known as a consent decree, are that Joseph perform 50 to 100 hours of community service, undergo counseling, and participate in the Big Brothers program. His father died when he was 3.

The 11-year-old Plumstead Township boy has acknowledged that on Sept. 1, he and a 7-year-old friend unlawfully entered the home of T. Gary Gambardella, chief of special investigations for the Bucks County District Attorney's Office. Gambardella's 11-year-old son was a playmate of the two boys, who live on his street.

Gambardella told police he was missing at least $340 cash, a video game, a game controller, and some children's trading cards. Both Joseph and the 7-year-old denied taking anything.

Joseph's consent decree required no admission of guilt. The probation requirements do, however, compel him to write Gambardella a letter of apology, participate with him in a victim's conference, and pay $370 in restitution.

If Joseph obeys the conditions and stays out of trouble, the charges against him - felony burglary and theft by unlawful taking - will be dismissed, and the record of his arrest will be expunged, said Andrew Schneider, his attorney.

The hearing before Bucks County Court Judge Rea B. Boylan was closed because of Joseph's age.

Gibbons called the agreement a "great sentence" whose conditions should address any problems the boy may have. "And hopefully it's all over, and I don't see him again," she said.

"This is a relief to everybody, including Mr. Gambardella, and certainly the Ramos family," Schneider said. "This is the end of this matter as far as we are concerned."

Except that it wasn't.

Joseph's case drew attention because felony charges are rarely brought against 10-year-olds, Joseph's age at the time of the incident. Questions also arose because Gibbons' office approved the charges in October, despite the potential conflict of interest posed by Gambardella's job.

Only in January did Gibbons turn over the case to the state Attorney General's Office, citing the appearance of a conflict.

"That should have been done as soon as possible," Schneider said after yesterday's hearing. "It wasn't."

After The Inquirer published a story March 18 about the handling of the case, Gibbons was quoted in two other newspapers that the boy had been involved in two previous burglaries. However, she gave no specifics, and The Inquirer could find no evidence to support her claim.

Yesterday, Schneider called on Gibbons to correct those statements.

"What Joe has done, he doesn't deserve a reward for, but he also doesn't deserve to be held up to ridicule and shame," Schneider told reporters. "He has suffered as a result of what has happened here, particularly with respect to remarks made about his having done this for the third time.

"That information is incorrect," he said. "The juvenile probation officer who investigated this case indicated that he has spoken with several chiefs of police, the Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services Agency, and there was no report that Joe had ever done anything like this before . . .

"I would hope that this would be corrected."

At an afternoon news conference, Gibbons said she would do no such thing.

"It's not untrue," she said.

Asked for specifics of the other incidents, Gibbons said she could not elaborate because Joseph is a juvenile.

Joseph had landed in juvenile court, Gibbons contended, because his mother, Jocellyn Maisonet, had not held him responsible for his actions.

"If the parent is not going to correct the behavior, I will have to do so for them," Gibbons said. "My job is to protect that neighborhood."

Maisonet has said that she grounded the boy for two months, refused to let him play with friends or video games, and offered to pay for half of Gambardella's losses.

"That hardly sounds like someone who was not taking responsibility," Schneider said. "If Diane doesn't know what the discipline was or wasn't, she shouldn't comment on it."

Gibbons repeated her stance that Gambardella's employment posed no conflict for her office in approving the charges. Some juvenile law experts have disagreed, and questioned whether the boy was charged more severely because of Gambardella's position.

"There is no conflict of interest if there is a burglary, the police say it's a burglary, everyone agrees it's a burglary. It doesn't really matter who he is," she said. "A conflict arises with disposition [of the case], not with charging."

Schneider, however, maintained that "this was a clear conflict of interest. She has to make credibility findings based on what a member of her staff has told her.

"It's not whether the right decision was made," he said. "It's whether there is an appearance of impropriety, and that is where the conflict of interest comes in."