About Juvenile Justice Advocates of the World

Juvenile Justice Advocates 

of the World

Becoming a Juvenile Justice Advocate! began for me in May, when a friend on Facebook shared a news story on channel 13 in Utah about 16 yr. old Cooper Van Huizen. It seems for the first time in his life he got in trouble with the law and was arrested with 4 other youths, 17 yr. old Joshua Dutson, 18 year old Dexter Skinner, 18 year old Wesley Brown and 19 year old Tomek Perkins - all 4 of these boys had prior record - all four of these boys are the ones that planned and were the active participants in the robbery.

Cooper was asked to go camping and shooting up in Morgan for the night, so he got 2 of his dad's guns (picked them not knowing that the one did not work, and he told them they had to get ammunition for them), a .221 cal missing the firing pin, and a .22 (similar to a starters pistol for track or swim meet), put them in the trunk of the car, and went to get in the car, Wesley Brown and Dexter Skinner each picked one of them, and Joshua chose an airsoft co2 pellet gun (supplied by Tomek Perkins also supplied and drove the getaway car)

When they got underway they told him they were stopping at a house in Roy where Wesley Brown had been living until 2 weeks before when he got kicked out. The kid that lived there, they told Cooper dealt drugs and had some killer weed so Cooper said ok.

When they got to the house, Tomek let the four others out and said he was going to go up the street to wait and would wait for them. So Cooper followed Dexter and Wesley, and Joshua around to the back door (because it was by the stairs and that way Christian could hear them knock) they knocked on the door, Christian let them in and invited them into the basement.

They followed him downstairs, where they hung out for about 20 minutes when Ryan a friend of Christian's who was hanging out playing video games and getting high, noticed the handle of the gun that Dexter had put in his waistband under his jacket, and reached for it, as he was pulling it out, Dexter grabbed him took the gun back and then proceeded to lecture Ryan on the etiquecy of another Man's gun, and how you do not touch it unless you are given permission, and they joked about it for a couple more minutes when Brown and Dutson pulled their weapons out and Skinner said this is a robbery, give us your weed, wallets, and cell phones, Brown crossed over to the desk and found Christians personal stash, and put it in his pocket. Skinner then told them to get on the floor and not move, then Brown tucked his gun back into his waistband pulled his jacket over it, and headed up the stairs, he went to the Mother's bedroom, stood in the door, and said, "Hi Mom" and lifted his jacket so she could see the gun and heard the others coming up the stairs, so he turned and joined them, Perkins came down the street and came to a screeching halt, the four jumped in and Perkins took off.

 Utah State Prison, Entrance to Uinta 1 - where Cooper
 was sentenced to live for the next 2 years, until he was 
 18 and old enough to go into "Gen Pop" 

The next day two of them were arrested, and soon after the other three were also in custody. In December Cooper's first Attorney Rex Brayer of Draper, Utah, due to his inefficient counsel let Cooper be Bound over to District Court. Cooper's 2nd Attorney did no better, and erroneously gave Cooper and his parents, Marc and Mindy Van Huizen advice that they counted on, and accepted them as truth - they could not appeal the Bind Over Order, that by taking the Plea Agreement that the Prosecutor offered Cooper, Joshua and Perkins - Brown and Skinner tried another Robbery and got caught so at that time had not gone to court yet - The deal would virtually guarantee, that there would be NO prison time - 180 days in the Weber County Jail, 3 years Supervised Probation, at the end of Successful completion of sentence, could file and receive a double 402 reduction, WHICH is NOT available to someone went to Prison.

Perkins was the first of the three to go before the Judge, and got his plea agreement, Dutson went next, and with him the Judge found him more of an active part so added 30 days and sentenced him to 210 days in the county Jail and then the rest of the agreement. In May when Cooper went before Judge Jones to enter his plea, and accept his sentence under the plea agreement, Judge Ernie Jones of the 2nd District Court in Ogden, Utah blindsided Cooper, the youngest of all of the defendants and the only one of them that had had NO prior record, and slapped him with TWO (2) concurrent 1-15 year sentences in the Utah State Prison at the Point of the Mountain in Draper, Utah. The 7th most notorious Prison in the US for RAPE, and other sex crimes.

Cooper is 16 years old at the time, he is approximately 5'11" 140 lbs., and what is he going to do to protect himself? Because the staff is not trained for Juvenile Confinement, and inability to adequately protect him, Cooper was housed in Uinta 1 which is where Solitary is, this is where they put you for stricter discipline, this is where they put you to keep you safe (Protective Custody) this is where the Death Row inmates are housed. This is where you are locked up 23 hours a day, you get to take a shower every three days or so, this is where when you get your 50 minutes of exercise each day it is in a "dog run" 6' x 12' Cement floor and walls and a Wire mesh covering the top.

Now you have to remember, the victim's statement and all of the defendant's statements originally said the same thing, "Cooper stood in the background and looked like he was going to pass out or crap his pants during the 2 to 3 minutes that the Robbery took.

Yet until Brown was sentenced in June NO-ONE else had gone to Prison, Brown was 19 when he was sentenced, and was 100% culpable of this and at least one more Armed Robbery, and he got the SAME EXACT SENTENCE as Cooper who had NO knowledge or Active Participation, OTHER than stealing two of his Dad's guns which got used for the Robbery, but he did not know that is what they were going to be for, from what everything I've read, been told, and found in all of the research I have done has proved. SO WHY did he get prison and the others did not, and WHY was the sentence of a 19 year old, with priors, who was an active planner and participant get the SAME sentence as this kid who mad a seriously bad judgment call and hung out with the wrong friends.

Cooper's new home, the Daggett County Jail, in 

Manila, UT

May 24th Cooper was moved to the Daggett County Jail, where he was put into General Population, and is currently housed with 12 Men in a 13 man cell.

Through all of this I have had my eyes open to how BAD this Juvenile Sentencing is, how out of hand it is that the Courts are doing to our Children what we would get thrown in prison for.

WHY IS THIS NOT IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA? WHY IS THIS NOT AT THE TOP OF OUR PRESIDENTS AGENDA? THIS CORRUPTION AND THIS TRAVESTY HAS GOT TO BE STOPPED AND IT HAS GOT TO BE STOPPED NOW!!! 

So I have decided I am going to do something, I created a community on LinkedIn,  JUVENILE JUSTICE REFORM I welcome you to come to join the group and let's figure out a way to fix this issue. I welcome you to come to join the group and let's figure out a way to fix this issue.

We also have several Facebook Pages, LEND YOUR VOICE to BRING JUSTICE to JUVENILES IN ADULT PRISONS! This page was started by me as I realized that this was bigger than just Cooper, and as a way to bring to public awareness this Travesty, this disgusting STATE SANCTIONED CHILD ABUSE, not just in Utah, BUT every Stat in the Nation.

HELP SUPPORT COOPER VAN HUIZEN! Started by Marc Van Huizen with assistance from Rachelle Bell. The site that started this whole awareness of this Travesty being heaped on our children. 

FREE COOPER VAN HUIZEN! Started by Emily Peterson a friend of Cooper's from School.