The 6-year-old dangled his legs above the floor as he sat at the table with his defense attorney, before a North Carolina judge.
He was accused of picking a tulip from a yard at his bus stop, his attorney Julie Boyer said, and he was on trial in juvenile court for injury to real property.
The boy s attention span was too short to follow the proceedings, Boyer said, so she handed him crayons and a coloring book. I asked him to color a picture, she said, so he did.
He didn t know it, but no matter what the judge decided, the experience could change the boy s life, experts say, from how he sees the court system to increasing his chance of getting into trouble again and being sent to alternative school.