JACKSON, Miss. — The mother of a 10-year-old Black child who was sentenced by a Mississippi judge to three months of probation and a book report for urinating in public has refused to sign his probation agreement and has asked for the charge against her son to be dismissed, the family’s attorney announced Tuesday.
Latonya Eason, the mother of Quantavious Eason, had initially planned on signing the agreement to avoid the risk of prosecutors upgrading her son’s charge, as they threatened, but she changed her mind after reading the full agreement Tuesday, attorney Carlos Moore said.
“We cannot in good conscience accept a probation agreement that treats a 10-year-old child as a criminal,” Moore said. “The terms proposed are not in the best interest of our client, and we will take all necessary steps to challenge them.”
The terms for Quantavious’ probation were similar to those prosecutors would demand of an adult, including sections that prohibited the use of weapons and demanded he submit to drug tests at a probation officer’s discretion, Moore said.
“It’s just a regular probation. I thought it was something informed for a juvenile. But it’s the same terms an adult criminal would have,” Moore said.
The agreement also imposed an 8 p.m. curfew for the child, which would have taken effect during the Christmas holiday.
The terms of the agreement stem from a sentence ordered on Dec. 12 by Tate County Youth Court Judge Rusty Harlow. The judge said Quantavious must serve three months of probation and write a two-page book report on the late NBA star Kobe Bryant.
The child’s mother has said Quantavious urinated behind her vehicle while she was visiting a lawyer’s office in Senatobia, Mississippi, on Aug. 10. Police officers in the town of about 8,100 residents, 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, saw the child urinating and arrested him. Officers put him…
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