More teens convicted; mom disrupts court

The mother of a "flash mob" rioter was arrested yesterday after she exploded in shouts and shrieks in response to a Family Court judge's convicting her son of two felonies and two misdemeanors.

"Lock me up," Theresa Guyton demanded. "That's my baby," she yelled, as six deputy sheriffs and court workers subdued, handcuffed and hustled her from the courtroom after she refused to calm down.

"As much as you love your mother, her conduct is childlike," Administrative Judge Kevin Dougherty told the woman's son, a 17-year-old Bartram High School student.

The defendant's attorney told the judge that the family has been in and out of homeless shelters and that the teen often has to care for his younger siblings.

"That's the problem. That's why you are here," the judge said to the weeping teen. "Your mother thinks of you as the man of the house."

Dougherty ordered the Department of Human Services to investigate the family.

The outburst came on the second day of trials for teenagers who took part in at least one of three recent flash-mob riots, the latest crime fad to hit Philadelphia. The riots of Feb. 16 and March 3 were marked by hundreds of teenagers' converging on Center City streets and stores. Many had been prompted to participate by messages sent to their online social-network accounts. (The most recent incident was on Saturday night, when teens ran amok on South Street.)

Dougherty yesterday accepted guilty pleas from 13 boys involved in the March 3 riot and convicted two others who asked for trials. All were convicted of felony counts of rioting and conspiracy.

Guyton's son was one of the two who asked for a trial. Dougherty sentenced him to Glen Mills, a private, residential school in Delaware County for male delinquents aged 15 to 18.

On Monday, Dougherty tried and convicted 10 boys for their roles in the Feb. 16 riot and acquitted one. Four other teens in that case agreed to plead guilty.

Over two days of trials, 29 youths have been convicted for participating in flash mobs. All juveniles found delinquent yesterday face up to four years in a state facility, but most who pleaded guilty were sentenced to four weekends at a Poconos boot camp, 60 days of electronic monitoring and two years' probation, and were ordered to take biweekly drug tests and to attend school every day on time.

Those with prior convictions or other glaring problems in their backgrounds were sentenced to state facilities.

Dougherty got creative with two teenagers who gave cops a hard time while being arrested. Besides their boot-camp sentences, he ordered each to spend 25 hours cleaning the bathrooms and washing cars at police stations.

Another teen who was to be released to his mother was instead ordered back into custody after Dougherty caught him rolling his eyes at his mother.

"It's a new day, gentlemen," the judge warned the other teens. "You will respect the parent who stands beside you or else you will not enjoy their home."

As for Theresa Guyton, she insisted that her son was in Center City on March 3 because she had sent him to get her cell phone fixed.

The judge dismissed that story, however, because her son was arrested blocks from the phone store while running with a group of classmates from Bartram High.

"Lock me up. I sent him down there. Take me," a defiant Guyton wailed as she was led from court.

Assistant District Attorney Angel L. Flores said he understood that Dougherty released Guyton after she calmed down.

"It's part of a systemic problem where guardians are prepared to make excuses for their child's behavior and are unrealistic as to what their child is doing and how they're behaving," he said. Dougherty thanked Guyton's son for staying calm. DHS will help and monitor her while he is away at Glen Mills, he said.

He urged the teen to seize his future. "Do the right thing. Make us proud," he said.