BOY WHO SAYS HE WAS DUPED INTO TRANSPORTING DRUGS GOES HOME

ALBANY - The story he told was a sad one.

He was lured to Albany with the promise of $50 and a visit to a fake aunt.

Unbeknownst to him, the three older boys who offered him the money secreted
thousands of dollars worth of heroin in his backpack, and he was arrested.

Though his IQ tested in the 80s, making him slow but not technically
retarded, he was found to be competent for trial on felony drug charges.

Some even suggested that it was all an act - a really good act.

But now it is possible that no one will ever know what really happened -
except for the boy himself and the three older teens he says took advantage
of him. He says he didn't even know them. "I don't have any friends," he said.

The 15-year-old from Brooklyn was released and sent home with his mother
Tuesday following his final appearance in Albany County Family Court.

Thus ended a monthlong saga that began when he was arrested March 6 at the
Albany Bus Terminal.

Instead of holding a trial to determine if he is a juvenile delinquent,
Judge W. Dennis Duggan approved a petition by the teen's attorney and the
assistant county attorney to have him declared a person in need of
supervision or PINS. The judge then transferred that petition to the Family
Court system in Brooklyn.

Depending on the outcome there, the teen could be put on probation or sent
to a juvenile facility until he is 18.

On Tuesday, though, he packed into the car with his stepfather, uncle and
mother, looking like any other teen-ager. All four were eager to leave the
city where they knew no one.

The boy's mother said she will work harder to keep him away from bad
influences.

"Being that he has special problems, I was giving him whatever he wanted,"
she said. Her son has been receiving Social Security disability payments
because of his emotional problems. He was also seeing a therapist and a
psychiatrist. But according to court papers, he stopped going to them and
was no longer taking his medication.

His attorney, George Collins, wrote that the teen is "very gullible and
particularly susceptible to peer manipulation and influence."

In addition, the teen's family life has been in a state of upheaval for
months, according to court documents and statements at proceedings.

The family was robbed several months ago, forcing his mother, stepfather
and six younger siblings into a homeless shelter. The teen went to live
with his grandmother in North Carolina, then came back to New York City in
November and lived with an aunt. He has not been to school since then.

His mother told the judge she tried to get him enrolled, but his special
needs made this difficult.

She also told the judge that the boy's father has been in and out of jail
since he was born. He is serving 15 years to life in the Auburn State
Prison for third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

In a conversation after court, the boy sounded more like an 8-year-old than
a high-school student as he talked about the time he spent in a Colonie
detention center.

He said he was always cold and there were spiders.

"And they are mad mean," he said of the staff at the Capital District
Juvenile Secure Detention Facility. During his first court appearance, he
said he had been raped there. Officials discounted this.

And now he said he is uncertain about what happened.

Asked about the incident that brought him to Albany, he said he simply
wanted the $50.

"I don't even know what I was going to do with it," he said.