FEATURES
20 After struggling with poor
grades and drug charges, senior Daniel Altieri is beginning to
Pick up the pieces
28 april
2008
» mackenziewylie
BY
E
» mikehake
verything seemed normal on Nov. 27 when senior Daniel Altieri left for lunch after fifth hour Team Games. As he got closer to his blue Jeep Grand Cherokee, he saw a bright orange boot fastened to his wheel. Then, Dr. Mersch standing beside it. By the time he saw the three Prairie Village police officers waiting outside his car, he knew how bad things were about to get. That day last fall cost Altieri between 15-20 baseball scholarship offers from Division I universities. Before then, Altieri was being recruited by colleges like Memphis, Dartmouth, Kansas, Missouri and Kansas State. Then, it was more a matter of where he would be playing baseball after high school. Now, over five months later, Altieri is just hoping for a second chance at what once looked like a promising collegiate baseball career. *** They’re searching the car. They’re going to find it. All Altieri could think of was how to get out of the situation. After about 45 minutes of watching police search his car, he was forced to release the key to his locked glove box. Officers quickly found what they were looking for and immediately arrested Altieri on marijuana possession and drug paraphernalia charges. Everything came to a crashing halt that day for the then-nationally recruited baseball player. “The worst part was they arrested me in front of about two-thirds of the senior class [during lunch],” Altieri said. “It was [bad] because a lot of people were spreading rumors and I wasn’t there to clear things up. When I came back everybody was just like ‘Oh my God what happened to you?’” After police received a tip of the possibility of drugs in Altieri’s car, both campus and city police officers went to the senior lot to wait him out. “We as police have to have probable cause to search a car,” Detective Brady Sullivan said. “Whereas an administrator can search any car [on school property] based on any reasonable suspicion.” Once he was finally taken into the SRO office and given the standard search round, he was processed and released to his parents. “I knew he wasn’t doing well in school, and I knew he wasn’t hanging out with the people I wanted him to,” Joan Altieri, his mom, said. “That day when the SRO called us and asked us to come in for a meeting, that’s when the full extent of everything became obvious.” On top of the charges, the arrest also put an abrupt end to his high school baseball career. “The administration pretty much brought me in and said baseball is done for you,” Altieri said. The senior that played varsity his sophomore and junior years wouldn’t even see the field in the 2008 season, causing every Division I university to withdraw its scholarship offer. “It really [frustrated me] because that’s what I want to do [after high school],” Altieri said. “Now I’m going to have to go to a junior college to get noticed by Division I schools.” Playing on a traveling team last summer, Altieri gained attention from University of Memphis head coach Daren Schoenrock after a school recruiter watched one of Altieri’s games. He also met Missouri State head coach Keith Guttin on the last day of the summer season. With no pending charges or school, he was able to focus on baseball all summer. “I was probably home about 16 days this
summer,” Altieri said. “The rest I was out of town playing with the team. I would come home, rest, then pack my bags and leave again.” Besides the legal trouble Altieri was now facing, his grades were starting to suffer, which became another large deterrent for recruiting colleges. To be eligible for a scholarship, he had to maintain a 2.0 GPA, which he had fallen far under. “When everybody found out about my grades, the D-1 colleges started dropping off,” Altieri said. “I take full responsibility for my grades. It was just procrastination and lack of will to do my work.” His attendance in class got increasingly worse, and by early April he had accumulated too many unexcused absences to receive credit for second semester. “Daniel has a chance to do something most people only dream about,” Joan said. “He has a gift not many people have, and he’s more or less throwing it away.” *** It was the morning of April 21, and Altieri was standing in front of the judge in Prairie Village Municipal Court. The last time he was here he got so sick he couldn’t even make it into the courthouse. Today would be different, though. “I wasn’t really nervous,” Altieri said. “I had been there before. I knew a lot of serious things could come out of it, but a lot of good things could come of it too.” After personally addressing Altieri, Judge Michael Farley decided to continue the case until June 5. “He told me I have a lot of potential and I need to stay in school,” Altieri said. “When you’re standing there in front of a judge, it really makes you think about it from a legal perspective.” Altieri was also court-ordered to come back to school, though he won’t get any credit for his classes. “I don’t mind coming back,” Altieri said. “They just don’t want me sitting around for the rest of the school year.” With 3.5 credits still left to attain, Altieri will be back at East this fall for another semester. After graduation, he’ll set his sights on college baseball. “I haven’t started looking at junior colleges yet,” Altieri said. “I’m focusing on graduating first. There’s no doubt I’ll get my diploma.”
Q&ADionn Scherff
with
Law Offices of Cornwell and Scherff
Q: How do you go about representing a teen that has been accused with drug charges? A: In Johnson County a teen is automatically appointed a lawyer, no matter the income status of the family. Or the family can hire a lawyer before or after the drug charges. Q: How, if at all, does representing a teen with drug charges differ from representing an adult? A: It doesn’t at all really, as far as constitutional rights. But in a juvenile case you are not convicted you are judicated. Q: How much time does it take you to prepare for such a case? What all goes into it? A: I really can’t say. It could be five hours, it could be 35 hours. It really just depends on the case. The amount of research and the amount of research and writing vary from case to case. Q: How often do you see teens with drug charges? A: A lot. Fifty percent of the cases I handle in juvenile court are drug and alcohol related. Q: What do you think this says about today’s youth? A: It doesn’t say anything about today’s youth. I feel we have a court system that over prosecutes.