On a Wednesday morning in late August in the small Missouri town of Hawk Point, which is a few miles west of Troy, Billy Ray Davis, who had turned 17 a month earlier, yelled at his younger sister. An account of what happened next comes from a police report. It is the account given to a Lincoln County deputy sheriff by the children's mother.

She said she was awakened by the yelling and went into the kitchen. She saw Billy standing over his sister with his hands clenched in fists. The mother confronted Billy. "If you're going to push a girl around, then it's going to have to be me." Billy pushed her and told her to get out of his face. Billy and his mother yelled at each other.

Billy then walked into the bathroom. As he did so, he called his mother a name. She followed him into the bathroom and unplugged his straightening iron. He pushed her against the sink and pulled the electric cord out of her hand. He said, "I hate you, bitch. I wish you were dead. I wish both of you would die."

He then walked into the living room. His mother picked up a wet towel that Billy had left on the floor. She threw the towel to him and told him to pick up after himself. He grabbed the towel and accused her of hitting him with it. He then began snapping the towel at her legs.

Billy's mother went into the bedroom and asked her husband, Billy's stepfather, to do something. He called the police.

School had just started that week, and Billy went outside to wait for the bus. He was starting his junior year. Actually, he was starting his third year, but he was a few credits short of being a junior.

The deputy spoke to Billy's mother. The school bus arrived and Billy boarded it. The deputy got Billy off the bus. He took him to the sheriff's office and booked him for domestic assault. That is a felony. An assistant prosecutor using the aforementioned police report filed the appropriate papers in court — that the defendant attempted to cause physical injury to the victim by pushing her, and that the victim was a family or household member.

Well, yes, it was all true. Billy had pushed the victim. He also had snapped a towel at her. And, of course, she was a family member.

Billy was put in the Lincoln County jail. Bail was set at $25,000.

Billy stayed in jail for 10 days until his file wound up on the desk of Tom Gabel, who heads the public defender's office for Lincoln and Pike counties.

Gabel is a folksy sort who spent 20 years in the Army before going to law school. He is a father of grown children, and he thought $25,000 bail and a felony charge for this particular offense seemed extreme. He went to a judge and got Billy released on his own recognizance. Billy went to stay with his aunt, his mother's sister, while the case was pending.

The prosecutor, meanwhile, took a second look at the case and amended the charge to a misdemeanor. The new charge alleged that Billy had unreasonably and knowingly alarmed the victim by yelling, "I hate you, bitch. I wish you were dead." The prosecutor offered a deal. If Billy would plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge of peace disturbance, he would be given probation and a suspended imposition of sentence. If he could successfully complete his probation, he would have no record.

Gabel advised Billy to reject the deal. "I believe we could successfully argue to a jury that while it is wrong for teenagers to swear at their parents, it is probably not good public policy to charge them criminally," Gabel said.

The misdemeanor charge was dropped on Monday. I visited Billy on Tuesday. He is back living at home. He is also back in school. He had been suspended because of the pending felony charge. He described himself as an average student. He said if he goes to summer school, he figures he can still graduate with his class in May 2011. I asked what he hoped to be doing in three years. "Maybe construction," he said.

He is about 6 feet tall and slender. He has long, dark hair. He has facial piercings. I asked if he had any problems in the county jail. He shook his head. "My bunkies were cool," he said.

I made several efforts to reach his mother, but she didn't respond to my messages. The prosecutor who filed the felony charge has since left the office.

I asked Billy if he had apologized to his mother. He shook his head. He shrugged when I asked how he was getting along with her. He said they still argue.