Thanks OBE.
Of course I agree no one has a right to sell drugs. I didn't say youths have the right to break the law.

Who would say that?
But, the point is that youthful offender status would be considered & is typically permitted when the offender has not reached age of majority and it's a first offense and it's not a crime of violence and there is no previous record (as in Misty's situation). The fact is that a youthful offender COULD be tried as an adult, but is not mandated they be tried as an adult. Had they arrested Misty one month prior, while she was still eligible for youthful offender status they'd have risked their strategy - the threat of these players facing significantly long minimum mandatories was necessary if LE hoped to strong-arm confessions out of this gang. And Misty would have been a very typical candidate for eligible for youthful offender status.
I should probably explain why I feel strongly about this strategy of LE's and the fact that LE was after Misty, Tommy and Ron, and they waited specifically for Misty to be 18.
Like quite a few here, I've been a faithful follower of threads in the basement on the scanner (nee Haleigh basement thread) from the inception of that thread (spring, 2009) - it was a rumor thread at first - through the present day.
(okay, that was hard to see in writing - oh my gosh!
hew: how long we've been holding firm here waiting on our Haleigh's justice @ WS
) We celebrated Misty's 18th birthday and we knew exactly where she spent it because we were able to follow LE on the scanner as they followed this gang's every move for a year. EVERY MOVE! I think we pretty much knew (with a few weeks exception) where Ron and Misty, Tommy and Nay Nay and any other Misty acquaintance/party-friend/lover was every week just by the scanner and jail log activity. And it was clear to us in the last few months of Misty's 18th year that she'd be arrested for SOMETHING as soon as she turned 18. And guess what? She was. And the super scannettes here on Haleigh's scanner thread actually heard & recorded the reports of the sales she made as they went down on the scanner with LE eavesdropping the UC's locations. Of course we wondered, but we couldn't confirm it was the undercover working with Misty at the Kangaroo that LE was stalking (for example), until we did our rewinds - after the fact.
Anyway, that's why it's my very strong opinion that LE was quite careful to make sure Misty would not qualify for Youthful Offender status and waited for her to reach the age of majority before making their move.
And yes, I should have said it's just IMO that Misty's has some kind of learning disability that made school difficult for her. She can't read close to the level she left school at (approx 6th grade, IIRC). Neither can her father Hank. Yet, she was in school through 6th grade at least. Reading happens by then unless you have some sort of learning difficulties. That doesn't mean I think she's not street smart and reasonably intelligent, and perhaps she will be able to learn to read in a prison program. But IMO, she has some sort of learning disability or a learning difference of some kind. It clearly wasn't properly addressed in whatever school experience she had. And her folks were aware of it. I have wondered if because Hank Sr. has found it so difficult to learn to read (and readily just admits he can't read), Misty's parents just accepted that she was like her daddy that way and didn't advocate at school on her behalf...but ... I digress.