Grace Toohey
Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. — As outrage continued to spread over the arrests of two 6-year-old students by an Orlando police officer last week, State Attorney Aramis Ayala confirmed Monday afternoon that her office would not prosecute the children and is working to clear their records.
“I refuse to play any role in the school-to-prison pipeline,” Ayala said. “ … The criminal process ends here today. The children will not be prosecuted.”
Ayala said that she had spoken to Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolon, who also did not want the children, who were arrested on misdemeanor battery charges, to be prosecuted. The top prosecutor for Orange and Osceola counties said she appreciated Rolon’s “integrity and the consistency he has shown.”
Officer Dennis Turner was suspended amid an investigation into the arrests of the two young children, which city officials said went against the agency’s policy that all arrests of children younger than 12 require a watch commander’s approval. Turner did not have approval for the two arrests.
The grandmother of one of the kids told WKMG-TV that the girl was arrested after she had a tantrum at school, which her grandmother said can happen because she has a sleep disorder. Meralyn Kirkland said her granddaughter was handcuffed and she was transported to the juvenile justice center, where her mugshot and fingerprints were taken.
Ayala said she was unable to confirm those details Monday.
The Orlando Police Department initially said one of the children was 6 and the other was 8.
While officials have not identified the school where the arrests occurred, news reports indicate they were at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy, a charter school on Mercy Drive. Turner is a member of the Orlando Police Department’s Reserve Unit, which is made up of retired OPD officers.
OPD has not responded to questions about the incident and the department’s internal investigation into Turner on Monday, and Rolon was not made available for an interview. However, Mayor Buddy Dyer was responding to people upset about the arrests on Twitter.
“Our top priority as a city is the safety and well-being of our city’s children. OPD has launched an internal investigation into this and the officer has been suspended pending the outcome of that investigation,” a tweet posted to the mayor’s official Twitter account said.
The city’s records department in response to a request by the Orlando Sentinel said it could take weeks to produce public records on Turner’s disciplinary history.