Elizabeth Olten #3 11/18/09 -

[Northern Rose]

Northern...what the heck is going on in MO?

The news has been very very quiet around the case again.  They did not even do an article on Elizabeth's birthday which just passed.

[Northern Rose]

BLOCKED WEBSITE

[mamacrazy30]

i feel badly for the family...(each one)   this kinda thing makes your heart sink.

[MuffyBee]

I find this very, very frightening.  The article is about Texas juveniles with severe psychiatric problems and have even murdered, but are set free.  I hope this has no bearing in Elizabeth Olten's case.

http://www.kvue.com/news/national/79761007.html
 Loophole lets mentally ill Texas juveniles go free

Posted on December 20, 2009 at 2:34 PM

TYLER, Texas (AP) — A 16-year-old former juvenile detainee is accused of stabbing a high school teacher to death with a butcher knife. Another teen was convicted of killing a roofer during a 30-minute robbery spree.

Both were released by the Texas Youth Commission because the agency wasn't equipped to treat their mental illnesses and had to let them go under the law.

The cases highlight what some juvenile justice experts say is a loophole in the way Texas treats underage offenders with severe psychiatric issues. Data obtained by The Associated Press reveal that the commission has released more than 200 offenders because of mental health issues in the last five years and that more than one-fifth went on to commit new crimes, some of them violent.

"All these cases are failures where we should have done something different," said Richard Lavallo, legal director of Advocacy Inc., an Austin organization that helps children with disabilities.

In most states, youthful offenders aren't discharged from custody because of mental illness unless they are being committed to hospitals.

But under a 1997 law meant to keep mentally ill juveniles from being held in detention centers where they can't get proper treatment, Texas youths serving indeterminate sentences who have completed their minimum required time in custody are released to their parents or guardians.

While some experts said Texas should be commended for not warehousing such offenders where they can't get treatment, they questioned the logic of releasing them without ensuring they receive supervision.

"Without some requirement for supervision, it doesn't seem like a sound policy to me," said Gail Wasserman, a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University and the director of its Center for the Promotion of Mental Health in Juvenile Justice.

The issue gained notoriety in September with the fatal stabbing of a 50-year-old special education teacher at John Tyler High School in Tyler. The teacher, Todd Henry, was sitting at his desk in his classroom when he was attacked.

The Texas Youth Commission discharged the boy accused of killing Henry in July because he had been diagnosed with multiple mental health issues, including schizophrenia, according to his attorney, Jim Huggler. The teen, who the AP is not identifying because he is a juvenile and has not been charged as an adult, had been committed in 2007 for aggravated assault.

Huggler said he had seen nothing to indicate the boy's family, which had relocated to Tyler from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, had received a plan from state or local officials on how to deal with his mental problems.

"This case is sad on so many levels," he said.

The commission makes sure offenders discharged because of mental illness receive referrals to their local mental health/mental retardation centers. But there is nothing that requires the youths or their families to avail themselves of those services.

Cherie Townsend, the commission's executive director, declined to comment about specific cases. But she acknowledged it may be time to limit some of the discharges for public safety reasons or require that some be tied to conditions.

"We've got to find a middle ground where we assure public safety and accountability for actions that have taken place and at the same time find better ways to provide treatment for these youth," she said.

Any changes would have to be approved by the Legislature, which doesn't meet again until 2011.

Lawmakers did approve a measure last spring that allows youths released from custody due to mental illness to receive case management services like those available to parolees.

But the author of the legislation, Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, said the Tyler case has convinced him that the measure doesn't go far enough.

"This has to be looked at much more globally than a little quick fix," he said.

According to the youth commission, 206 juvenile offenders have been released in the last five years due to mental illness. Of those, 43 have been re-incarcerated. Most were returned to custody for burglary or robbery, but some were convicted of more serious offenses, including two for arson and two for sex crimes involving children.

Among the offenders who have been discharged is Jeremy Miera, 21, who is serving a lifetime prison sentence for the fatal shooting of a 45-year-old roofer in May 2006.

Prosecutors said Miera and two other teens drove around San Antonio looking for people to rob. Miera was convicted of shooting the roofer, and another of the teens pleaded guilty to shooting an off-duty Beeville police officer who was in San Antonio to attend a National Guard function.

Records provided to the AP by Miera's family show he was released on parole from a Texas Youth Commission facility in May 2005 and discharged entirely four months later for "inability to progress due to mental illness/retardation." It was his second stint in juvenile detention after being originally committed at 15 for robbery and being returned for fighting at school.

While in juvenile custody, Miera was diagnosed with depressive disorder. His parole included intensive surveillance and conditions that required him to seek employment, do community service, remain at home in the evening and continue taking the antidepressant Prozac.

Lavallo, the Austin attorney, said using the law to discharge an offender from parole "makes no sense" because it takes away state services as well as supervision.

Miera's sister, Elizabeth, said her family was "astonished" at the abruptness of his discharge and that authorities provided no direction for dealing with his illness. She said the situation was particularly confusing for her mother, who struggles to understand English.

"My mom and my brother thought everything was OK because he just got released," she said. "We never thought we would actually need to nip (a problem) in the bud."

[Northern Rose]

Teen Murder Suspect Has New Lawyers

Jefferson City)  --  The central Missouri teenager accused of killing a nine-year-old girl in October has new legal representation.

   Alyssa Bustamante, 15, is now represented by the state Public Defender System's Capital Litigation division office.

   Bustamante faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if she is convicted for the murder of Elizabeth Olten in Cole County.

http://ozarksfirst.com/content/fulltext/?cid=218371

[Northern Rose]

BLOCKED WEBSITE

[Northern Rose]

BLOCKED WEBSITE

[Northern Rose]

Please light a candle and say a prayer for Elizabeth

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=Liz%20O

[Bearlyhere]

Please light a candle and say a prayer for Elizabeth

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=Liz%20O

[Northern Rose]

I am amazed at how quiet the local media has been.  They announce two new insanity defence lawyers and then fall quiet.  Nothing about how the Olten's are doing, how the schools are doing, how her friends are doing, nothing.   

[bigmoney]

I am amazed at how quiet the local media has been.  They announce two new insanity defence lawyers and then fall quiet.  Nothing about how the Olten's are doing, how the schools are doing, how her friends are doing, nothing.   

I have been wondering if there was anything at all going on involving this  case. Are there any of the locals out there that have any info to share? Was her so-called boyfriend ever believed to be involved in this in any way? Are there other sources of information available on the web? Anymore pictures surface?    Thanks!!!

[Txsflame]

I find this very, very frightening.  The article is about Texas juveniles with severe psychiatric problems and have even murdered, but are set free.  I hope this has no bearing in Elizabeth Olten's case.

http://www.kvue.com/news/national/79761007.html
 Loophole lets mentally ill Texas juveniles go free

Posted on December 20, 2009 at 2:34 PM

TYLER, Texas (AP) — A 16-year-old former juvenile detainee is accused of stabbing a high school teacher to death with a butcher knife. Another teen was convicted of killing a roofer during a 30-minute robbery spree.

Both were released by the Texas Youth Commission because the agency wasn't equipped to treat their mental illnesses and had to let them go under the law.

The cases highlight what some juvenile justice experts say is a loophole in the way Texas treats underage offenders with severe psychiatric issues. Data obtained by The Associated Press reveal that the commission has released more than 200 offenders because of mental health issues in the last five years and that more than one-fifth went on to commit new crimes, some of them violent.

"All these cases are failures where we should have done something different," said Richard Lavallo, legal director of Advocacy Inc., an Austin organization that helps children with disabilities.

In most states, youthful offenders aren't discharged from custody because of mental illness unless they are being committed to hospitals.

But under a 1997 law meant to keep mentally ill juveniles from being held in detention centers where they can't get proper treatment, Texas youths serving indeterminate sentences who have completed their minimum required time in custody are released to their parents or guardians.

While some experts said Texas should be commended for not warehousing such offenders where they can't get treatment, they questioned the logic of releasing them without ensuring they receive supervision.

"Without some requirement for supervision, it doesn't seem like a sound policy to me," said Gail Wasserman, a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University and the director of its Center for the Promotion of Mental Health in Juvenile Justice.

The issue gained notoriety in September with the fatal stabbing of a 50-year-old special education teacher at John Tyler High School in Tyler. The teacher, Todd Henry, was sitting at his desk in his classroom when he was attacked.

The Texas Youth Commission discharged the boy accused of killing Henry in July because he had been diagnosed with multiple mental health issues, including schizophrenia, according to his attorney, Jim Huggler. The teen, who the AP is not identifying because he is a juvenile and has not been charged as an adult, had been committed in 2007 for aggravated assault.

Huggler said he had seen nothing to indicate the boy's family, which had relocated to Tyler from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, had received a plan from state or local officials on how to deal with his mental problems.

"This case is sad on so many levels," he said.

The commission makes sure offenders discharged because of mental illness receive referrals to their local mental health/mental retardation centers. But there is nothing that requires the youths or their families to avail themselves of those services.

Cherie Townsend, the commission's executive director, declined to comment about specific cases. But she acknowledged it may be time to limit some of the discharges for public safety reasons or require that some be tied to conditions.

"We've got to find a middle ground where we assure public safety and accountability for actions that have taken place and at the same time find better ways to provide treatment for these youth," she said.

Any changes would have to be approved by the Legislature, which doesn't meet again until 2011.

Lawmakers did approve a measure last spring that allows youths released from custody due to mental illness to receive case management services like those available to parolees.

But the author of the legislation, Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, said the Tyler case has convinced him that the measure doesn't go far enough.

"This has to be looked at much more globally than a little quick fix," he said.

According to the youth commission, 206 juvenile offenders have been released in the last five years due to mental illness. Of those, 43 have been re-incarcerated. Most were returned to custody for burglary or robbery, but some were convicted of more serious offenses, including two for arson and two for sex crimes involving children.

Among the offenders who have been discharged is Jeremy Miera, 21, who is serving a lifetime prison sentence for the fatal shooting of a 45-year-old roofer in May 2006.

Prosecutors said Miera and two other teens drove around San Antonio looking for people to rob. Miera was convicted of shooting the roofer, and another of the teens pleaded guilty to shooting an off-duty Beeville police officer who was in San Antonio to attend a National Guard function.

Records provided to the AP by Miera's family show he was released on parole from a Texas Youth Commission facility in May 2005 and discharged entirely four months later for "inability to progress due to mental illness/retardation." It was his second stint in juvenile detention after being originally committed at 15 for robbery and being returned for fighting at school.

While in juvenile custody, Miera was diagnosed with depressive disorder. His parole included intensive surveillance and conditions that required him to seek employment, do community service, remain at home in the evening and continue taking the antidepressant Prozac.

Lavallo, the Austin attorney, said using the law to discharge an offender from parole "makes no sense" because it takes away state services as well as supervision.

Miera's sister, Elizabeth, said her family was "astonished" at the abruptness of his discharge and that authorities provided no direction for dealing with his illness. She said the situation was particularly confusing for her mother, who struggles to understand English.

"My mom and my brother thought everything was OK because he just got released," she said. "We never thought we would actually need to nip (a problem) in the bud."

 The TYC and TDCJ(the youth and adult prsion systems in Texas) are both SOOO screwed up, it isnt funny. There are serious problem in both, and it is a well known fact, but everyone is working so hard at CYA, nothing gets better. The workers are mostly miserable, and no one can trust another for the most part.. each department blaming other departments for the problems. The good officer cant get help, and the bad one are running the show, (on the lower levels) and the upper management(yes all the wya up to Austin) really dont care. many of Texas' elected officials consider the prison workers "babysitters" and have said this.. There are many good officers, but they are up against brick walls and no help. (just my observations from working there 5 years, Living on prison property most of my life, and having my whole family work there. )

[Northern Rose]

New docket entry.  Case status on Feb 16, AB is excused from appearing .  There is absolutely not ONE news site carrying anthing about this case.     How very sad for Elizabeth .

[Northern Rose]

forgot the link on that document

http://www.colecountycourts.com/courtnews.htm

[no rose colored glasses]

Thank-you Northern 

[Northern Rose]

BLOCKED WEBSITE

[Northern Rose]

Dad of slain Mo. girl pleads guilty to gun charges

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - The father of a slain mid-Missouri girl has pleaded guilty to federal gun charges.

Dale Olten Sr. was in prison on a state drug conviction when his 9-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, was killed last October in the town of St. Martins near Jefferson City. Alyssa Bustamante, who was age 15 at the time, has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty.

The U.S. attorney's office said Friday that Olten pleaded guilty to illegally possessing 29 guns. The weapons were found when authorities investigating a series of burglaries searched his Russellville home in February 2009.

Prosecutors say Olten admitted that 17 of the guns had been stolen.

Olten was barred from possessing guns because of previous felony convictions.

http://www.koamtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11978089

[Northern Rose]

Father of slain girl pleads guilty to federal gun charges

JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- The father of a slain mid-Missouri girl has pleaded guilty to federal gun charges.

Dale Olten Sr., 46,  was in prison on a state drug conviction when his 9-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, was killed last October in the town of St. Martins near Jefferson City.

Alyssa Bustamante, who was age 15 at the time, has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty.

The U.S. attorney's office said Friday that Olten pleaded guilty to illegally possessing 29 rifles, shotguns and handguns on Feb. 27, 2009. He also admitted that 17 of those firearms were stolen.

The firearms were discovered when law enforcement officers, investigating a series of burglaries, searched Olten’s residence.

Olten could get a minimum sentence of at least 15 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $500,000.



http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/story.aspx?id=415789

[Northern Rose]

Coming to Grips with Bizarre Murder Case (with video of father Dale and lots of new pictures)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Many community and family members, struck hard by the death of Elizabeth Olten, are struggling to make sense of the fact that a local teenager is charged with Elizabeth's murder.

A grand jury indictment says 16-year-old Alyssa Bustamante killed her 9-year-old acquaintance by strangulation, cutting her throat and stabbing her.  Bustamante is charged as an adult.

Family and friends shared intimate details with us about both girls, answering some of the many unanswered questions about how such a thing could happen.

A Troubled Girl

In exclusive video her friends shared with NBC Action News, Alyssa Bustamante looks like a typical teen riding on a school bus, laughing, joking and sometimes hamming it up for the camera held by a classmate.

She says to another student on the bus, “I’m gonna pop a cap in your ass.”  It’s something a lot of kids jokingly say to others these days.

But when that kid is Alyssa Bustamante, now accused of murdering for the thrill of it, that statement raises eyebrows.

Lindsey Jones showed us the video she took of her friend Alyssa nearly a year ago.  Jones wanted us to see a different side of Bustamante.  Besides that one statement, most of the video shows Bustamante as an outgoing, loud and joking kid.

"I want to remember Alyssa as I know her, as I think she still is. I believe she’s a troubled girl who made a decision and didn’t really think it out.” Jones said.

Alyssa's public image is much different.  Some have called her a teenaged monster after learning that she is charged with murdering Elizabeth Olten.  Others have said Bustamante had been planning to hurt someone.   

During police interrogations, Bustamante made a startling admission according to sworn court testimony by the Missouri highway patrol sergeant who questioned her.

According to his testimony, Bustamante killed 9-year old Olten simply because "she wanted to know what it felt like."

Experts have also testified that Bustamante was on Prozac.  At the time of Elizabeth Olten's murder, Bustamante was living with her grandmother.  The grandmother had tried to help Alyssa cope with depression and a recent suicide attempt.

Alyssa Bustamante and Elizabeth Olten lived several houses apart in St. Martins, a small town just west of Jefferson City.

Authorities say Bustamante plotted Elizabeth's murder for months.

Sources close to the investigation say Bustamante intended to kill and bury only one person that October afternoon.

That leaves this question unanswered: Why did she dig two graves in the wooded area near her home?


MORE....


http://www.nbcactionnews.com/content/investigative/story/Coming-to-Grips-with-Bizarre-Murder-Case/tNp71Xn6-kiZbI9zWOt8rg.cspx?articleID=584892

[Northern Rose]

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/Photo.aspx?content_id=d57bdab4-fa79-48fa-996c-8f7358eb7cae