Help Marcus Get Proper Legal Representation

Hello all,

I’m here today sincerely asking you to extend your empathy and kindness to my little brother, Marcus, who is currently incarcerated in a juvenile detention center as of Feb. 16, 2023. He’s 15 and since I’ve known him his core nature has always revolved around his playfulness and his ability to selflessly care for the people closest to him. Since he was a baby he’s always had to defy the odds since his mother and father weren’t in the picture to raise him so his grandmother decided to take him in instead and give him a home with us. Since then, he’s truly become the heart of our family.

Before diving into the specifics I think it’s important to note that he is neuro-divergent and is diagnosed with ADHD which has caused him a lot of difficulty over the years in creating and maintaining relationships with kids his age. Due to this, he was enrolled in the Special Ed program at his middle school which unfortunately proved to be a catalyst for a series of incidents involving him getting bullied by other classmates. After several attempts at communicating these issues with his teachers, he finally reached his breaking point when one of his main bullies threw a full carton of milk at him during lunch one day. Due to the school’s negligence in taking these matters into their own hands sooner, the situation escalated to the point where in an act of anger and humiliation, he verbally expressed a desire to "end the world" and as a result of this, is now being confronted with a felony charge for retaliation. Not much of this makes sense to us since his school initially decided on giving him a 7-day suspension and even allowed him to transfer schools following the suspension as he did not pose a threat to anyone. It wasn't until almost two weeks after transferring schools that a warrant was issued by the state for his arrest and was asked to turn himself in.

We’re a low-income, 1st generation Mexican family living in a small rural conservative town here in Texas where so often charges like these, for this particular demographic, are simply accepted without question either out of fear or intimidation of having to navigate the judicial system. The way this situation has been handled by both the school and county raises some genuine concerns surrounding their treatment and understanding of children with mental disabilities. With that being said, we’ve decided to hire a lawyer in an attempt to drop these cruel and unnecessary charges.

We are currently speaking with a very reputable lawyer who we strongly believe will bring us the justice that we deserve but unfortunately, our family currently doesn’t have the funds to pay the retainer for their services by his court date on March 3rd, 2023 so we’ve decided to reach out to our community for help. If you can, please consider donating however much you can to aid us in reaching our goal of $8,000 by Feb. 28th, 2023. Anything helps! If you made it this far, thank you for your time and we appreciate your kind spirit.

Sincerely,

The Rodriguez Family

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