Boy will continue to be held despite habeas corpus plea

By Staff Reports

Publication Date: 06/05/2009

A 16-year-old will continue to be held without bail in Indiana, despite his mother’s attempt to demand his release through habeas corpus.

Annette Lundeby filed a 14-page brief in federal court acknowledging her claim that her son was with her in church at the time of the February 15 telephone call that summoned a bomb squad and evacuated the Mechanical Engineering building at Purdue. Lundeby moved from North Carolina to Indiana to personally fight for her child’s freedom. She has even challenged the authority of her son’s prosecutor to represent the United States.

The case is sealed because Lundeby’s son is a minor. The judge dismissed her petition on Wednesday. The lawyer representing her son sought a pre-trial for the case that was denied and has yet to appeal the loss.

“Assuming Mrs. Lundeby stands in her son’s shoes for habeas purposes – a dubious assumption – she hasn’t exhausted the available remedies or shown that exceptional circumstances justify the relief requested,” U.S. district Court Chief Judge Robert Iller wrote.

The judge continued by stating that the teen may raise challenges to his pretrial confinement and the sufficiency of the indictment as well as jurisdictional and due process concerns in the pending pretrial proceedings. He has already challenged his pretrial detention unsuccessfully. The judge also said that Lundeby hasn’t identified any nonfrivolous basis for pursuing habeas relief in advance of trial.

Lundeby has acknowledged that her son was secretly a notorious prank phone caller who performed his calls in front of a live Internet audience in exchange for PayPal donations.