Moses had just finished a term of probation in juvenile court about three weeks before he fatally punched 55-year-old David Cheng on Lehigh Avenue near Germantown on July 15, 2007.
Moses' mom, Johnnie Mae Cooper, contended in a recent interview that she also believes that if some kind of advocate had checked on her son after his juvenile probation ended he would not be in prison.
"Without their guidance - look, I'm a single parent with six kids, I can keep my eye on them, but . . . what more can I do?" Cooper, 38, said. Asked whether she had beaten her son, as he had alleged, she said that she disciplined him when he got in trouble, but that it wasn't abuse.
George D. Mosee Jr., deputy district attorney of the district attorney's juvenile division, said that Server's post-probation idea was "not an easy proposition," but a "worthwhile" one. "What you're trying to prevent is the environment from taking its toll on the young person," Mosee said.
Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner, however, said that any available resources would better be used in improving juvenile-probation services rather than in trying to fund something altogether new, post-probation.
He also noted that without court authority, any post-probation program would be hard to implement. "Suppose you can send a social worker or mental-health professional to make house calls. You have no way of making [the youths or their families] open the door," he said.
But, Server believes, it's worth a try.
