Two young Pennsylvania girls were hauled into court on criminal mischief charges after a playground swing broke while they and several other children were playing on it. The sisters, ages 10 and 12, were accused of damaging borough property despite their mother’s insistence that the swing broke accidentally. A judge eventually found the girls not guilty because the borough could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they intended for the swing to break. Their mother now fears that the borough may pursue the family in civil court.
The incident happened May 21st at Veterans Memorial Park in Springdale, a borough northeast of Pittsburgh. According to the girls’ mother, Katie Huss, two children were seated on the swing while several others twisted it so the riders would spin and become dizzy. One of the swing’s chains snapped during the game, sending the children to the ground. Huss said her daughters told her what had happened when she picked them up from the park.
“They were super scared,” Huss said after the case reached court. “They’re good little girls. They go out and they play. They’re 10 and 12. They’re not doing anything crazy.” Huss said she initially expected officials might warn the children about misusing the equipment, but she never imagined that her daughters would face actual criminal charges over the broken swing.
After the incident, a Springdale police officer arrived at Huss’s home with surveillance photographs and asked her to cover the repairs. Huss told WTAE that she requested evidence showing her daughters had intentionally broken the swing, along with proof that the playground equipment had been inspected before the incident. She said an official responded that the borough was attempting to resolve the dispute civilly rather than “jam the kids up with a citation or criminal charges.”
Borough officials disputed Huss’s account of that conversation. The Springdale police chief and borough solicitor said the department “would never issue an ultimatum of ‘pay for the damage or your children will be charged.’ We simply don’t operate that way.” Officials said five juveniles were identified as participants and the repair expense was divided among them, resulting in a restitution request of approximately $59 per child.
Huss refused to pay without receiving the evidence she had requested. She told CBS Pittsburgh that surveillance images appeared to show “five, six, seven kids involved,” leading her to question why police were at her home focusing on her two daughters. By July, the girls had been charged with criminal mischief and ordered to appear in court.
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During the hearing, the Springdale police officer who filed the charges testified that the children had negligently used the swing improperly. Borough Solicitor Craig Alexander argued, “People do things all the time for the thrill, to get a kick out of something, and knowing that they’re breaking the law.” Huss pushed back because the charge against her daughters required proof that they intended to damage the borough’s property.
The judge determined that the evidence showed the girls had caused the swing to break but that the borough had not proven they intended to break it. Both sisters were consequently found not guilty. Huss said the dispute was never about the relatively small repair bill, explaining that officials had not provided her with the requested repair documentation and that she still had not seen the surveillance video, although it was played for the attorneys in court.
The matter may still continue in civil court. Huss said she was told Springdale officials were considering a civil filing to recover the repair expense despite the girls’ acquittals in the criminal mischief cases. “I’m still waiting to find out if they’re going to escalate it further, as they promised,” she said. “I’m not going to give in.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.