When we last left Emilia Miller, who was attacked outside the Spotlighter's Theatre on a Sunday afternoon in August, she was happy that someone had found her discarded driver's license and mailed it back to her home in Jennings, La.

Miller, 66, is in Baltimore visiting her daughter and son-in-law, and getting a slipped disc repaired at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The family was about to enter the theater on St. Paul Street a few blocks north of the Washington Monument when she was robbed of her pack, which contained money, a camera and her medical records.

Police quickly arrested a young man and the son-in-law, Michael Brand, sent me an update last week. That was good news -- someone had found his mother-in-law's drivers license and mailed to her home. But that good news quickly went sour.

Brand sent me an email last night saying he had been informed by prosecutors that the youth, at first charged as an adult, would be instead charged as a juvenile. The law only allows youths to be charged as adults in certain crimes. And in this case, it didn't quite fit:

The suspect who robbed Emilia Miller implied he had a knife but did not dislay it, according to police. That means the charge of robbery with a deadly weapon had to be reduced to robbery, according to Margaret T. Burns, a spokeswoman with the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office. Police say the suspect did show a knife, not during the robbery, but when Michael Brand was chasing him. The inability to connect a robbery directly to the knife cost the chance at charging him as an adult, Burns said.

A prosecutor explained that part to Michael Brand, who fired off this email to me last night:

Unfortunately, we heard from the State's Attorney's Office yesterday, and we found out some very disappointing news: as you know, the thief who was arrested had originally been charged as an ADULT with assault & armed robbery; however, since he pulled the knife on ME rather than my mother-in-law, and since he's 16, the charges have now been reduced to assault & robbery (on Emilia) & second-degree assault (on me) -- and he'll be charged as a JUVENILE instead of an adult (which probably means that the judge is going to be more lenient in the sentencing). So, the original 15 Sept. court hearing will probably have to be rescheduled and Emilia will have to delay her return to Louisina even longer.

Don't you just love how our "legal system" often ends up protecting the criminals rather than their victims (and potential future victims). I tell you what, the Saudis know how to deal with thieves -- off with the right hand!

I checked the court records for the suspect this morning and found them unchanged. I called Burns and it turns out the story gets better, at least for Michael Brand's sake. The suspect had no ID when he was arrested and told police he was 16. Today, authorities pulled his birth certificate and learned that the young man is not 16, but 19, Burns said.

And so Dajuan Daugherty, 19, of Middle River, remains charged as an adult on charges of robbery, second-degree assault and theft under $500.