ERIE, Pa. (AP) _ A 10-year-old girl accused of brutally attacking another girl on a playground is too emotionally immature to understand the criminal charges against her and they should be dismissed, a public defender said.

The 10-year-old and another girl, 11, face charges including aggravated assault for the attack on another 10-year-old girl in an elementary school playground the evening of April 3. The girls are accused of stomping on the victim and breaking her hip, police said.

Erie County Public Defender Tony Logue says he will ask a Juvenile Court judge to dismiss criminal charges against the 10-year-old girl.

”How can my attorney effectively communicate with his clients given the client’s chronological age versus emotional age?” Logue said.

It was not immediately clear if the attorney representing the 11-year-old girl will pursue a similar petition.

Logue said his office will argue the case should be treated as a dependency case, not a delinquency case. In legal terms, a judge who rules a child is dependent can place the child under the supervision of the Erie County Office of Children and Youth.

A delinquency case, which is what the girls currently face, is the juvenile court equivalent of a criminal case. If the girls are found delinquent, the equivalent of a guilty verdict, they could be confined in a juvenile detention facility or otherwise be under the supervision of the court until they turn 21.

Ian Murray, the assistant public defender representing the 10-year-old girl, said she and her family feel deep remorse for the attack. ”This is tragic for everyone, especially the victim,” Murray said.

Family members of the 11-year-old suspect say she is an ”A” and ”B” student who has never been in trouble before.

The injured girl said the other girls pulled her off the monkey bars and attacked after she told the girls to stop splashing water on her 8-year-old sister in the school playground. Police said the victim was repeatedly stomped on the head and legs.

The victim remains hospitalized and is expected to undergo at least one week of rehabilitation at a hospital. She has three pins in her hip to keep the bones in place and may eventually need a hip replacement, her mother said.