For Colorado youth, misdemeanors can mean many different things. Normal teenage activities that they had once enjoyed may not be open to them after certain charges are brought against them. This past Sunday a young man was the center of attention at a movie theatre in Colorado, causing his innocuous joke to bring up the heartache and fear from this summer.

Police officials were called and appeared at the scene where a young boy, 17-years-old, was trying to play a joke on his friends. He was reportedly wearing a mask that looked like the Joker along with a clown hat. There was also a clown suit with him in his bag, however no weapons of any kind, officials report. They also note that no threats were made and it is reported that he was meaning to prank the friends he had gone to the theatre with.

The aftermath of this summer's shooting in Aurora continues to stay with people across the nation and affect the people of Colorado perhaps especially. This young man was charged with menacing the movie-goers in the form of five misdemeanor counts. People who saw him with the mask on reportedly fled the theatre in fear and as a result, he is being sent to juvenile detention.

While this joke was perhaps not in the best taste, the crime here was reportedly not intending to scare anyone other than this boy's friends. The fact that it caused some other people at the movie theatre to flee was the reason for his misdemeanor charges and now he must live with that. Juvenile detention is no small thing. For Colorado residents whose children have had juvenile charges brought against them, working with an attorney who is practiced in the matter may help the case as it moves forward.

Source: New York Daily News, "Colorado college student arrested for menacing moviegoers by wearing Joker mask to theater," Erik Ortiz, Nov. 12, 2012.