judge mary beth bonaventura and her five fellow judges will hear more than 3,000 cases in a year. be simple detention hearings. while others will be trials for serious offenses. 16-year-old ayryana has spent the weekend in detention for disorderly conduct at a high school football game. it's not her first time in juvenile. with two previous trips to the courtroom, the judge will have to decide whether ayryana should remain locked up or be allowed to go home with her mother. >> i want to tell the judge the whole story and just let her know that i -- i am going to school. i have changed a lot since the last time i have been to court. >> with the long, tense weekend behind her, it is finally ayryana's turn to tell her story. >> tell me what happened. >> me and my brother and a friend, we was going in line to get our tickets for the football game. and the principal had stopped me, and she said, well, um, i don't go to the school no more so either i had to leave or i had to go to the other side. when she came up, she came up with a police officer. so i said, um, okay, well i got to get

. >> for 26 years lake county juvenile judge mary beth bonaventura has been making tough decisions that aim to get kids like aaron back on track. >> they're coming back into the community. i want to do everything i can do first before i send them to the doc or department f corrections. >> because of aaron's age, his long history with the juvenile system, and the fact that he's still on probation for attempted car theft and battery, the stakes are much higher this time. aaron has already been warned that the prosecutor's office is looking at waiving him to the adult system. >> i've got a bad record. so i'll probably beg please don't let take my life away from me. to me that's taking my life away. that will be three adult felons instead of just one. i have three pending. >> aaron admits he has an unquenchable thirst for taking cars that aren't his own. his other vice, playing escape artist. >> my staff called me to let me know that he was trying to be a trickster and had a detention officer bring him up sunday night for the release for the weekenders. and our intake officer elizabeth noti

therefore, judge bonaventura is out of options when it comes to rehabilitation.could let him go if she feels he's not a threat to himself or the community. she could send him to juvenile prison, or she might waive him to the adult justice system. >> thank you. i think that listening to your description of him sitting next to you and him being bigger than you really strikes a chord with me and it's really sad. here's a young man who has sort of grown up in our system. by some people's opinions it might be that he failed because he left the program before he was supposed to. that isn't going to make me give up on children. up until a few weeks ago, that's what he was, a child. just because you reach that magical age does not make you an adult. it's what you do after that with your life that makes you a grownup and a man and an adult. there's a lot of bumps in the road of life. and hopefully you'll get over those bumps. because we're not going to be here to hold your hand anymore. you're going to have to do that by yourself. good luck to you mr. pizano. i hope you g