10-year-old boy, Daniel Marquez whose mugshot was posted on the Internet after he ‘jokingly’ threatened to shoot up his Florida elementary school has been locked up in a detention center.
Gatekeepers News reports that Young Marquez was ordered to be detained for 21 days by a judge last weekend after being charged with making a written threat that allegedly suggested he was plotting to shoot up Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral.
The boy’s lawyer, Douglass Molly in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com the texts – two stock images and a message the boy sent to his friend saying he was looking forward to the last day of school have been taken totally out of context by authorities.
“It was an attempt at humor – but fifth-grade humor,” Molloy said.
Nevertheless, the boy is being held at Collier County Juvenile Detention Center in Naples. Florida – 55 miles from his home where he lives with Army veteran father Dereck Marquez, 35, his elder brother, and grandmother.
The boy’s nightmare began when the father of the boy who received the messages got concerned and reported them to the Lee County Sheriff’s Department, which then unleashed the full force of the law on the elementary school honor student.
According to the arrest report, Daniel sent a text to a friend saying, “I scammed a friend,” along with a Google image of cash.
“I bought this,” he added a few seconds later and included an image of four assault rifles.
He later sent another message saying, “Get ready for water day,” referring to an end-of-school-year event in which students participate in water activities.
In a radio interview after the incident, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said his team did not “wait one second,” adding, “We investigate every threat as if it’s real.”
“I did a campaign. Fake threat, real consequence. While I understand the boy is 10 years old, his brain’s not fully developed. He’s a juvenile. I have to tell you: When a 10-year-old presses a trigger, the aftermath is the same regardless of the age,’ the sheriff explained.
However, Attorney Douglas Molloy who is fighting for his release from detention insists the texts were child-like humour and were taken out of context.
“Based on a review of what has been supplied to me, Daniel was texting a friend and they were going back and forth, a stream of texts about a variety of subjects,” Molloy said.
“And within that was what I can only call an attempt at humor – but fifth-grader humor.
“He made an unfortunate reference to assault rifles, but only in some joking way, not related to any kind of attack on a school.”
Molloy added that “There was no reference tying the two things together. Somewhere in there was supposed to be something funny.
“He didn’t directly say he was going to shoot up a school. It is drawing a conclusion. There’s further conversation, back and forth about Water Day and the events.
“But nothing, absolutely nothing related to shooting it up or referencing the guns.”
Molloy, who was a state and federal prosecutor for 30 years, revealed the texts were spotted by the friend’s father.
“The dad had occasion to review them, I’m not sure why…And this is a time when there is a heightened sensitivity to those two words, assault rifles,” the legal counsel said.
“And while Daniel didn’t use those words, he used some stock photo he got somewhere. The father called Mr. Marquez and said: “I’ve got some concerns about this text, what does it mean?”
“Mr. Marquez was unfamiliar with them and said, “well this is just goofing around.” So the other father let him know that he had contacted the sheriff’s department.’
“Daniel’s father told the deputies he understood why they were there and handed them the phone,” said Molloy.
“And he was told that this could be perceived as a threat simply because they are in the same chain of events. Then they arrested Daniel.
“They handcuffed him at his home and put him in the back of a patrol car. Mr. Marquez was not allowed to go in the car with him, I believe he met his son at the sheriff’s department sub-station.
“Next Daniel was processed for making the threat and appeared before a judge at Lee County Courthouse, who had to decide if there was probable cause.”
Molloy continued, “At that time Daniel was being represented by the first person Mr. Marquez could get on the telephone, a very good lawyer who contested the probable cause. He said look there’s no threat here, there’s no probable cause to hold him.
“The judge disagreed and said there was, and that Daniel had to be held for 21 days. He was taken to the juvenile detention center in Collier County because the one in Lee County is under construction. He’s still there.”
Molloy said Daniel was ‘crying all day’ after his arrest.
“I have reached out to the state attorney’s office and we will be talking about possible release,” he added.
“My job is to get him out and to get him his life back – to not have everyone in that 10-year-old’s life look at him differently, forever. To have people still look at him as the honor student he is – and that this was tragic collateral damage amid the cancer that pervades American society at this time.
“His dad is visiting him tonight and I will see him tomorrow. I’m moving everything from my desk for this because we all have a 10-year-old in our lives somewhere.
“I have a grandson and I do not wish to visit that in my brain how that might feel if he was in this situation.”
Molloy who stated that Daniel comes from a loving and stable home added that “He’s a boy scout, a child who excels at his studies, he is bookish. He has a good sense of humour and is very intelligent.”
Sheriff Marceno, a politically-connected Republican who calls himself ‘Florida’s Law and Order Sheriff,’ while defending the arrest said, “Every single threat is real. Every threat is real until you prove not.’
Marceno added, “You don’t get to come into one of my schools in my county and present deadly force. Because we meet deadly force… without hesitation.”
The alleged threat comes four days after a lone shooter killed not less than 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
