DATE: Saturday, March 8, 1997               TAG: 9703080211

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A14  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK AND JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITERS 

                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

TWO WHO RAN AWAY FROM PORTSMOUTH AND NORFOLK CENTERS ARE IN CUSTODY AGAIN

Two teen-agers who ran away from juvenile facilities in Norfolk and Portsmouth were recaptured Friday, one on Granby Street near Wards Corner and the other in Washington.

Joseph Medina, 18, who escaped from Tidewater Residential Institute in Norfolk Sunday, was recaptured Friday at 4:46 p.m. by State Police, the Norfolk Police Department and the Tidewater Regional Task Force, said Tammy Van Dame, a spokeswoman for the State Police.

Police made the arrest after receiving a tip that Medina, from Prince William County, had been spotted in a wooded area near Wards Corner. He was flushed from the woods by canine units, said Norfolk police spokesman Larry Hill.

Medina was charged Friday with the burglary of a residence on Painter Street that occurred Wednesday and with escape with force. Other charges are being considered, Hill said.

Medina, who escaped from the facility with another youth by crawling out a second-floor window and jumping to freedom, was being held on statutory burglary and petty larceny convictions.

The other teen-ager captured Friday, 19-year-old Charnice Nicole Carter, was picked up near her home in Washington. Little additional information about Carter was available Friday. It is not known whether she will be returned to Portsmouth.

Carter - who was charged in the beating death of her adoptive mother in 1995, a charge that was later dismissed - ran away from The Pines Residential Treatment Center on Crawford Parkway in Portsmouth Feb. 27 while being taken to a hospital for treatment of a hand wound.

The Pines treats youths with severe behavioral problems. Many have been convicted of crimes, some as serious as murder.

The murder charge against Carter was dismissed two and a half months after her arrest because of a lack of evidence, said Kevin Ohlson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington.

Both The Pines and the Tidewater Residential Institute are owned and operated by First Hospital Corp. of Norfolk, which has been the subject of recent controversy.

The state Department of Juvenile Justice on Tuesday removed all 24 remaining residents from the Norfolk facility where Medina had been staying. The facility had been open less than a month.

The other youth who left the Norfolk facility, a 16-year-old also from Prince William County, was recaptured Sunday near the facility, located on Granby Street near DePaul Medical Center.

Portsmouth police spokeswoman Amber Whittaker said Thursday that she could not find a report made to police by Pines officials concerning the runaway. Police on Friday, however, said that such a report had been made.

The Pines has a policy that calls for the notification of police whenever a resident runs away. Typically, when a youth runs away, Pines officials also make calls to the youth's clinical case worker, the guardian and the agency that referred the youth to The Pines. KEYWORDS: ESCAPE BURGLARY CHARGE

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