Mark WiedmerSCOTTSBORO, Ala. - Seventeen-year-old Dylan McQueen sat silently in the prisoners section of Courtroom 1 at the Jackson County Courthouse on Thursday morning.
His hands and feet were cuffed, his body covered in an off-white Jackson County Jail jumpsuit, his face a frozen picture of hopelessness and helplessness. He'd been reduced to this attire and this fate since Monday evening, when the South Pittsburg football star quietly surrendered to the authorities rather than be arrested at school, which had been the original plan.
His mother, Donna, claims she was not allowed to visit him from Monday to Thursday, which surely contributed to the 10-plus pounds he lost from his 5-foot-10, 170-pound frame by not eating while incarcerated.
Yet exactly why the arrest was deemed necessary remains something of a mystery. Though McQueen has been in a heap of trouble since June - when he and three other young men were arrested in connection with a home invasion that included charges of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary - he had, by all accounts, been a model citizen in recent months.
"All I can say is that he's been a great kid around us," said South Pittsburg coach Vic Grider, who had no idea who McQueen was until the start of the football season, when Dylan and his mother appeared at the coach's office door, asking for a fresh start because the arrest had caused the Jackson County school system to move him to an alternative school, which gave him no chance to play football.
"He's done exactly what we've asked. Until this happened, he'd had perfect attendance when he hasn't had to be in court. It's amazing how quickly our kids attached to him and bonded with him."
Amazing is what this case could become. Though 38th Circuit Court Judge Jenifer C. Holt ruled Thursday afternoon that McQueen could go home with his mother for the weekend under house arrest, the situation has the makings of a three-ring circus of Southern small-town football infighting, race and politics, all of it playing out on a national stage.
All three Chattanooga television stations were at the courthouse Thursday, as was a five-man NAACP contingent led by Olivet Baptist Church pastor Kevin Adams, who reportedly spoke to the Rev. Jesse Jackson about dropping by Scottsboro early next week to support McQueen, who is black. CNN is also on the influential Adams' speed dial.
Beyond that, you have judges and district attorneys who are elected officials serving a constituency that doesn't seem too happy that the gifted McQueen is banned from playing for Scottsboro High but is scoring touchdowns left and right just across the state line at South Pitt.
"It's not the young people who are the problem," Donna McQueen said. "It's the adults. They're nice to your face, but you hear things. There are adults bashing my son, and I will not have it."
But many of those adults presumably vote. So as McQueen's football success at South Pitt has mirrored his past time in Scottsboro - in very limited duty he has scored seven touchdowns and averaged nearly 47 yards a punt return and 16.7 yards per rush for the Pirates - it's not inconceivable that those voters might at least be suggesting to those in power that if McQueen isn't running roughshod over Scottsboro foes, he shouldn't be running roughshod over anyone else's foes.
"I'm not sure if racism is fully a part of this," Dylan's mother said. "I think it's basically just small-town politics."
Of course, all this is playing out before McQueen has his day in court, before he gets to explain why he was driving the car that carried the ring leaders away from the home invasion, though everyone to this point is saying that that's all he did and that he didn't know about the robbery.
But there is also a nettlesome back story here that may explain why Judge Holt said more than once of McQueen on Thursday, "I have concerns about his past."
Though the case is sealed, his mother admitted he had run into trouble in juvenile court in January. Despite scoring a 22 on his ACT and maintaining a 3.7 grade point average through his junior year, Dylan apparently has struggled emotionally since his father died of cancer five years ago, causing his mother to admit, "He's had a lot on him for a long time."
How long he has the threat of a prison sentence hanging over him is anyone's guess. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for early November. Before then, Judge Holt is said to be considering allowing McQueen to return to classes at South Pitt if his juvenile court judge approves it.
To that end, South Pitt guidance counselor Lynn Cooper said, "What concerns me is that he's not receiving a free and appropriate public education while he's in jail. Dylan's a model student, polite, respectful. He's already been accepted to Chattanooga State. But he can't go anywhere if he can't graduate."
Added Pirates senior offensive lineman Mitch Butner, one of a large group of Pirates players who spent the morning in Courtroom 1 in silent support of their teammate: "Obviously, something's going on. Whether it's football or race, I can't say."
Race seems to move to the front of almost every issue in this country, especially when the legal system is involved. But as Adams watched this latest example of distrust and dysfunction, he said something that every young person in this country needs to consider each time he or she is tempted to do something that might be against the law.
"You wonder how many young people - black and white - don't understand what they're doing," he said. "And how their whole future can be derailed by just one mistake."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com