The video is shocking: A teenage girl is repeatedly beaten and taunted as other teenagers shout in the background. "Make this 17 seconds good," one yells toward the video's end.
The teens arrested and accused of participating in the videotaped beating engaged in "animalistic behavior,"Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a press conference Monday.
"It's pack mentality," he said. "They lured her there to beat her."
Eight teens were arrested, including six girls investigators say pummeled the 16-year-old victim until she was bruised and had a concussion. According to the victim, the girls bragged that they planned to post the beating on YouTube and MySpace.
The 16-year-old was having problems at home and was staying with a friend, Mercades Nichols, 17, in Lakeland, according to the Sheriff's Office.
On March 30 about 8:30 p.m., the victim arrived at Nichols' house on West Calendar Court and was greeted by Nichols and another girl.
The victim went into the bedroom where she was staying, and a third girl, April Cooper, 14, began to insult and threaten her, then hit her in the face several times and slammed her head into a wall, knocking her unconscious, a sheriff's report states.
When the victim awoke, she was on the living-room couch surrounded by six girls who took turns hitting and kicking her while the beating was videotaped, records show. The girl told investigators that the six blocked the door, held her down and beat her for a half-hour. Sometime during the attack, her left ear and eye were injured, authorities said.
Two teenage neighbors, both male, acted as lookouts, the Sheriff's Office said.
After the beating, three of the girls drove the victim to another friend's house, where they told her, "If you go to the police, the next beating will be worse," the report states.
Six girls, a boy and a young man were arrested Wednesday on charges of felony battery and false imprisonment.
They are Nichols, Cooper, Brittni Hardcastle, 17, Kayla Hassell, 15, Brittany Mayes, 17, Cara Murphy, 16, Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18. All are from Lakeland except Hassell, who is from Mulberry.
Mayes, Hardcastle and Nichols also were arrested on charges of felony kidnapping for forcing the victim into the car and driving her to another location.
All the minors were taken to thePolk County Juvenile Assessment Center in Bartow and were still in custody late Monday, a sheriff's spokeswoman said. Schumaker was released from the Polk County Jail on bail and, in a phone interview, denied being involved.
Schumaker said Monday that he was not a lookout. He told the Orlando Sentinel that he and Ashley were sitting on Ashley's porch next door to Nichols' house when he heard Nichols yelling at the victim. He said he went to get gas and was not present when the victim was beaten.
According to the sheriff's report, the victim told investigators that Schumaker and Ashley knocked on the front door and warned the girls they were making so much noise that neighbors were wondering what was going on."I could be facing a year and a day in jail for something I didn't do," Schumaker said.
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