Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 9, 1994 TAG: 9406090059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER NOTE: below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Minutes earlier - while the camera was being operated by another teen - the 17-year-old had joined three other assailants in attacking a student at William Fleming High School.
Authorities say four Fleming students - including the 17-year-old, an accused cocaine dealer who was free on bond at the time of the May 13 incident - assaulted two students on videotape as part of a bet.
The video, taped by a fifth student, was viewed Tuesday in Roanoke Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court and shows the four students roaming the campus in search of victims to attack.
After viewing the videotape, Judge John Ferguson convicted all four teens of assault and ordered them held in a juvenile detention center until they are sentenced.
The student who was operating the video camera, a member of the school's video yearbook staff, did not face criminal charges.
One victim was pushed in the back as he walked down a hallway, the videotape shows, and a second was punched in the head and neck outside a school building. After both assaults, the four assailants celebrated with "high-five" hand slaps and laughter.
"They were laughing at how they beat up the victims, and how scared they were," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Phillips said.
The assailants have not attended Fleming since the incident, according to principal Alyce Szathmary. They are not being identified because of their ages.
Juveniles are seldom incarcerated on misdemeanor assault charges, but Phillips said the case was particularly aggravated for two reasons: The defendants not only chose innocent victims at random, but also videotaped the attacks.
"It just shows how brash they were," Phillips said. "They were obnoxious and they were showing off."
The four students can be heard on the videotape discussing a bet that led to the attacks.
"All this was over a bet," Phillips said. "One of them had to pick out a victim and had to floor him with one punch. If he didn't floor him, then it was the next guy's turn."
One question that remained was why the teens would want to capture such incriminating acts on tape.
"These are 17-year-old kids," said Al Wilson, a Roanoke defense attorney who represented one of the juveniles. ``They're not thinking that far ahead. They're thinking, `Let's tape this and then it'll be cool to watch it later.'''
After the assailants were charged, Phillips said, they showed little remorse in interviews with police. Phillips said one student told police, "When you make a bet, you have to follow through. You can't back down."
The videotape shows the students approach one potential victim, whom they decided not to attack because he was too small.
The two victims - a ninth-grader and a 10th-grader - were not seriously injured in the attacks.
In conversations among the defendants, there was at least one mention of "white guys" being targeted for attack, Phillips and Wilson said. The two victims were white; the four assailants were black.
No racial slurs were made before or after the beatings, Wilson said.
"Anytime you have white victims with black criminals, or black victims with white criminals, people are going to claim there was some sort of racial overtone," Wilson said. "But I don't think that was the case here."
by CNB