<human>: I won't go into full details because I don't want to screw the "case" over, but the short version is that my brother did some very, very minor property damage to a yard of an ex-friend (stupid, he admitted). Somehow the ex-friend's dad knew it was my brother and call the cops. Cops go to house, parents text brother, brother turns himself in. At the station my brother was charged with a third degree (class B) criminal mischief charge. Here's where it gets interesting.

He's been told *by the cops* that he is getting tried as an *adult* for a FELONY. My brother is *not* 18. He will not be for two more months and his court date is before his birthday. Plus, my brother tells me that the police report was exaggerated, not extremely but enough, in order to push the damages past the $250 dollar range needed to charge. And google tells me this should be a misdemeanor, not a full-blown felony.

My brother has had one previous run-in with the law when he sold something of his to someone in town and the check bounced, causing police to get involved. However, my brother was never actually in trouble and didn't even press charges.

My parents have already lawyered up and are going to fight the charges. My brother is more than willing to pay to fix it and/or to fix it himself. All are slightly confused as to why the cops were called in the first place, but the ex-friend's parents have been known for being a little... uptight.

So, I pose my question to any with knowledge of the mess that is our American justice system: just how fishy is this? I'm not actually living with my family at the moment, but something just seems *off* to me.

Can you give me the gist of the text in a nutshell?
<bot>: Non-adult brother being tried as an adult in a felony case instead of a misdemeanor. Legal, y/n?