09:37 PM CST on Sunday, January 18, 2004

By Mike Zientek / 11 News

A Montgomery County teen-ager is no longer in jail. But he still doesn't know what his future holds.

Officers arrested the 16-year-old last week after using his inhaler in the Magnolia High School Cafeteria.

His detention hearing was held Sunday morning. The judge okayed his release. The teen's family still says the punishment does not fit the crime. What does the teenager have to say?

KHOU-TV A Montgomery County judge released Michael Todd Sunday.

Sunday morning may have been cold and wet, but nothing was going to wipe the smile off Michael Todd's face. "I missed my whole family," he said. "I was sitting there, about to go to sleep and I was just thinking I could drink a tall glass of milk right about now."

A Montgomery County judged ruled Sunday that the 16-year-old could go home after four days in juvenile jail.

Todd was there because he used his asthma inhaler in front of a teacher at Magnolia High School and that teacher became sick.

"I did not like it one bit," said Todd. " I think they shouldn't have charged me in the first place."

Todd's mother had already been moved to tears a couple of hours before she saw her son, when she and friends got the news he was leaving jail. "I'm very relieved," said Judy McCreary." I am so glad he's coming home. He's lost some weight, I need to feed him."

But there is a small cloud on Michael Todd's horizon. Originally he was charged with deadly conduct, a misdemeanor. But evidently the prosecutors are considering upgrading that charge to assault on a public servant, a felony.

"He's a good boy," said Todd's grandfather, Vic Wilson. "It's all uncalled for really, I mean this is all uncalled for. This kid's no troublemaker, come on."

At this point Todd and his family want to focus on his homecoming, they'll climb the legal mountain later.

There are conditions to Todd's release. One of them is he has to be around an adult 24-hours a day. His mother said he would now go to a private school, not an alternative school as Magnolia Independent School District mandated.

11 News was not able to get in touch with the chief juvenile prosecutor in Magnolia County to ask why he would consider upgrading the charge to a felony.