Gov. David Paterson said Wednesday the debit card his son had when stopped by police was found near a subway garbage can and never used, resulting in "just one of the situations'' kids can get into.
In his first comments since his 15-year-old son, Alex, was stopped by police Tuesday, Paterson emphasizes there was no arrest.
He told the "Imus in the Morning'' program on Fox News that his son was playing dice, not for money, with some friends when he was stopped near his high school in Manhattan.
"He's fine,'' Paterson said of his son. "I think he's a little annoyed. He feels he didn't do anything wrong and there hasn't been anything documented that he has.''
Paterson's son and another boy were issued juvenile reports for loitering with the purpose of gambling. A juvenile report is kept on file at the police precinct and with the police department's youth services division until the person turns 17. Then it's purged.
The teens don't have to appear in court and weren't charged criminally. They were released to relatives after a few hours.
"Apparently he was with a friend and the friend found this debit card and they thought it was thrown away because it was by a garbage can in the subway,'' Paterson said. "You know, teenagers will do that, they'll carry things. It would have been better to try find the person and return it, but no one had put any charges on the card so it was not an issue.''
Later in the day the governor retiterated that his son was not arrested, and said he would speak to other parents about the incident.
