Carol Duschl came to court Wednesday with a button bearing a picture of her toddler, who was burned by acid on a playground slide.
An hour later, the mother was wailing outside the courtroom.
“My son?s going to have burns on his legs for the rest of his life,” the 24-year-old said. “These boys are going to get away with it.”
Duschl cried after a Baltimore County judge?s decision to transfer the case against the two accused teens to juvenile court, where they will avoid serious penalties.
“There?s going to be no consequences for their actions,” she said. “You can go ahead and pour acid on a slide and it doesn?t matter that a little boy is seriously hurt.”
A grand jury indicted Kyle Meredith, 17, and Mateusz Dybala, 16, both of the Essex area, on adult first-degree assault charges stemming from an April 14 incident. Police said the teens broke into Victory Villa Elementary School in Baltimore County and poured bottles of a cleaner containing sulfuric acid on the slide.
Payton Potochney, 3, suffered second- and third-degree burns, requiring five operations in which doctors removed skin from parts of his body to place on the back of his thighs and calves.
Circuit Judge Mickey Norman said he remanded the case to juvenile court because “these two individuals are amenable to treatment.”
“They are remorseful,” defense attorney Henry Wegrocki said. “It was a malicious destruction gone very, very badly. They were stupid 16-year-old kids who poured a chemical on plastic to see the effects.”
Prosecutor Robin Coffin said the teens laid a trap for schoolchildren because they poured the acid on four slides and handrails.
“The very saturation of the playground proves intent,” Coffin told the judge.
