Mississippi judge drops probation for Black child, 11, sentenced for urinating in public
An 11-year-old Black child who urinated in public outside a Mississippi office building will not be required to serve probation or write a report about Kobe Bryant, his attorney said.
An 11-year-old Black child who urinated in public outside a Mississippi office building will not be required to serve probation or write a report about Kobe Bryant, his attorney said.
Quantavious Eason was 10 when he was arrested in August by police in Senatobia, Mississippi, 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. He was charged in youth court with being a child in need of supervision, his family’s attorney, Carlos Moore, has said.
In December, Tate County Youth Court Judge Rusty Harlow said Quantavious must serve 3 months of probation and write a two-page report on Bryant, the NBA legend who died in 2020, Moore said. But the child’s mother, Latonya Eason, refused to sign the probation agreement and asked for the charge to be dismissed because she said the terms of the agreement were similar to those prosecutors would demand of an adult, including that Quantavious submit to drug tests at a probation officer’s discretion, Moore said. The agreement also imposed an 8 p.m. curfew.
At a hearing Monday, Harlow dismissed the youth court petition that sought to designate the child as one in need of supervision, Moore said, adding that he planned to sue the city, its police chief and the officers involved in Quantavious’ arrest. Moore said the child’s arrest and probation sentence were racially motivated.
From left, attorney Carlos Moore, Quantavious Eason and Latonya Eason.Courtesy Latonya Eason“I’m 99.9% sure that had he been a white child, he would not have been arrested,” Moore said in an interview Tuesday.
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