Mississippi Mother Refuses To Sign Probation Terms For 10-Year-Old Charged With Public Urination

The terms included prohibitions on weapons, discretionary drug tests, and an 8 p.m. curfew over Christmas.

Latonya Eason, mother of 10-year-old Quantavious Eason, has refused to sign a probation agreement imposed by a Mississippi judge after her son was charged for urinating in public.

The family’s attorney, Carlos Moore, announced the refusal on Dec. 26 and asked for the charge to be dismissed entirely.

Quantavious, who is Black, was sentenced on Dec. 12 by Judge Rusty Harlow to three months probation and a book report on Kobe Bryant. The harsh terms were similar to what an adult criminal would receive, including prohibitions on weapons, discretionary drug tests, and an 8 p.m. curfew over Christmas.

According to his mother, Quantavious urinated behind her car on Aug. 10 while she visited a lawyer’s office in Senatobia, Mississippi. Police saw him and arrested him, putting the 10-year-old frightened youngster in a squad car and holding him at the station, though he was not handcuffed. Days later, the police chief admitted the officers mishandled the incident and said one officer was no longer employed by the department as a result.

Prosecutors had threatened to upgrade the charge from “child in need of supervision” to disorderly conduct if the family challenged the sentence. However, after reviewing the full probation agreement, Latonya felt it treated her young son as a criminal and declined to sign.

Attorney Moore filed a motion to dismiss the case entirely or take it to trial. A hearing is scheduled for January 16, 2024. Moore believes the harsh probation terms were inappropriate for a child and has called for the charge to be dropped rather than risk further penalizing Quantavious. The 10-year-old’s family hopes the case will be thrown out and that he will face no further punishment for the minor incident.