{"id":381992,"date":"2026-08-26T22:08:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T22:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381992\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T22:08:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T22:08:48","slug":"mother-pleads-for-leniency-for-daughter-with-autism-as-criminal-case-moves-forward-wsvn-7news-miami-news-weather-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381992\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother pleads for leniency for daughter with autism as criminal case moves forward – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI (WSVN) – A mother was brought to tears as she pled for leniency for her autistic daughter, whose criminal case moved forward after an incident involving an instructor at her school<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Esther King was overcome with emotions outside the courtroom Wednesday as she continues to fight battery charges pressed against her 21-year-old daughter, Halle Hansen.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a moment. She\u2019s not a violent \u2014 she\u2019s the sweetest kid ever,\u201d said King. \u201cShe\u2019s a gift from God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hansen, who has autism, is accused of striking one of her teachers at American Senior High School last November after having her cellphone confiscated, which led to her being handcuffed and later kicked out of the school.<\/p>\n

Her family was left frustrated over the summer after previously asking the court to show leniency<\/a>, arguing that Hansen was not capable of understanding what was happening.<\/p>\n

Michael Pizzi, the family\u2019s attorney, asked Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Maria Verde-Yanez to consider dropping the charges in the case after a court-appointed psychologist found the girl to be incompetent to proceed with the trial.<\/p>\n

Despite those findings, Verde-Yanez informed Hansen\u2019s family that she had no authority to block the case from advancing at this stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have the ability to dismiss the charges at this juncture. The law does not authorize me to do so,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Due to Florida law, in spite of Hansen being found incompetent to stand trial, it\u2019s required for her case to remain open for at least one year before charges can be formally dismissed.<\/p>\n

Pizzi questioned the court\u2019s logic during Wednesday\u2019s testimony, once again pleading with Verde-Yanez to drop the criminal charges instead of letting it run its course and drag the family through emotional turmoil.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not gonna get restored. She\u2019s autistic, she\u2019s not gonna change. She is autistic, you need to drop this case. I\u2019m not understanding \u2014 why are we gonna drag it out for another six months,\u201d said Pizzi.<\/p>\n

For now, the judge said her hands are tied in the matter, leaving Hansen\u2019s family fighting for what they believe is right and saying there\u2019s so much more context to what happened that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we get a subpoena to get the video camera out of the cafeteria of the incident, the whole world will change about this incident,\u201d said King.<\/p>\n

King told 7News she would continue holding out hope for her daughter as they prepare for the next hearing scheduled for sometime in October.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (WSVN) – A mother was brought to tears as she pled for leniency for her autistic daughter,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-381992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}