A judge ordered probation and counseling for an Omaha teen responsible for sexually assaulting two young siblings in a northwest Omaha park.
The teen was one of two assailants who used threats and intimidation to force a then-5-year-old girl to commit sex acts on both of them and her then-6-year-old brother.
The boys, then 12- and 13-years-old, also took videos and photographs of the assaults with their cell phones.
Douglas County Juvenile Court Judge Wadie Thomas Jr. on Thursday ruled that the older assailant will continue to live at home with his family while being monitored by an GPS tracking device.
He also sentenced the now 14-year-old to indefinite probation and ordered him to enroll in a sex offender treatment program.
The judge ordered that he not be left alone with younger children, with the exception of his sibling.
The boy also will have to complete 50 hours of community service within six months.
The judge could have ordered the teen placed in a group home for treatment, or detention at the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center in Kearney, Neb.
The boys will not have to register as sex offenders, and any treatment would be completed by age 19, prosecutors said.
Juvenile Court differs from the adult criminal system by ordering rehabilitation as opposed to punishment.
The boy's lawyer, Steve Lefler, called it "a fair and just result."
The two boys were each found responsible in December on two counts of first-degree sexual assault and a related pornography charge. The second assailant will be sentenced next week.
In mid-June, the siblings rode their bikes to a small park in the Deerwood-Avalon neighborhood. There, they met the two older boys, who took them down an embankment to a large sewer drain, out of sight of the park for the assaults.
The victims' parents have been outspoken in the media since the assault occurred, saying they wanted to shed light on child sex assaults for all the victims.
Lefler said the attention only served to torment his 14-year-old client. He argued that Juvenile Court cases should be kept private to protect all the children involved.
"His classmates would ask him, 'What kind of perv are you?' " Lefler said.
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