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.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,6721790.story

 

Beaten cheerleader's mom says video was hard to watch

The teen shown being attacked by several girls will be home-schooled now.

LAKELAND - The 16-year-old cheerleader's face was covered with heavy makeup Tuesday in an effort to hide the bruises she suffered during a videotaped beating deputies said she suffered at the hands of girls she considered her friends.

Victoria "Tori" Lindsay, a student at Mulberry High School, said she learned a lesson from the betrayal, which led to the arrest last week of six girls, one boy and a young man on charges of felony battery and false imprisonment.

"The No. 1 friend is your family," she said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel at her home in a quiet southwest Lakeland neighborhood.

Tori's mother, Talisa Lindsay, said it was painful to watch the video, which aPolk County sheriff's detective brought to their home days after the March 30 attack so Tori could identify the girls involved. Investigators say they planned to post the video on YouTube and MySpace.


I was flabbergasted," Lindsay said. "I felt completely helpless."

Tori has bruises, a concussion and damage to her left ear and eye, although her family said she is expected to recover. The family would like a public apology from the girls, and they also want a law to protect kids on video and social-networking Web sites. Tori plans to continue her schooling at home rather than return to Mulberry High.

Meanwhile, the grandmother of one of the girls who was arrested says her family is suffering, too.

The beating is alleged to have happened at Mary Nichols' house while she was at work. Since the Sheriff's Office released the video this week, Nichols said, she has been receiving threatening, obscenity-laced telephone calls, and someone scratched her car.

The tape shows Tori being beaten and taunted as other teenagers shout in the background. Nichols' granddaughter, Mercades Nichols, 17, remains in the Polk Regional Juvenile Detention Center along with six other minors arrested in the case. Nichols described Mercades as "really a loving, caring kid."

"This is definitely traumatic to everyone, not just to Tori's family," Nichols said Tuesday.

Tori was staying at Nichols' Lakeland home because she was having problems with her family, the Sheriff's Office and Nichols said.

Earlier Tuesday, Christina Garcia, Mercades' mother, told Today show host Matt Lauer on NBC that she was ashamed of her daughter's actions.

"My daughter should have picked up the phone and called the police. Yes, she did warn this girl not to go in the house, but I do believe my daughter should have called the police," Garcia told Lauer.

Garcia has said that thePolk County Sheriff's Office has overblown the beating.

"First of all, the tape that was released is only three minutes long. That was the worst of it," Garcia said, contradicting the Sheriff's Office report of the incident that indicated the beating was severe and lasted for 30 minutes.

Reached late Tuesday, Garcia declined to comment further.

The trouble began when Tori went into a bedroom and 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 Tori 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.

Polk County officials identified the teens involved as 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. Schumaker was released on bail from the Polk County Jail. He and Ashley served as lookouts, the Sheriff's Office said.

Mayes, Hardcastle and Nichols also were arrested on charges of felony kidnapping.

 

I watched this with my daughter and I felt a rage like I have not felt in a very long time. I looked at my daughter and said, that's why I made you take weapons training with a concealed carry permit and got you a 17 shot 9mm weapon.

 

I am most suprised by the 18 and 20 year old boys. What are they doing around girls that age anyway. Violence isnt an black/white, city/suburb, or even a social class thing but a culture thing. Their lifes may be ruined over a myspace posting?

 

I am not at all surprised and see it far to often. I had to run off a 20 year old when my daughter was the tender age of 15. I do mean run him off and never saw him again. I made him understand the true meaning of my sig..

 

IS THIS REALLY THE PLACE FOR THIS ISSUE?

 

It's under off topic and why are you screaming at us? (all caps)

 

im not surprised...girls are much worse than guys anymore, and this isnt the first case that ive heard of something like this..

and does anyone really need to ask why those guys were there? high school cheedleaders with questionable decision making skills...

they should all stand trial, as adults, as either participants or accessories.

 

What I saw of this was on the morning news.
I will not watch the video - wherever it's posted - and bump up the number of "hits" (ironic reference in this case) on the video.

If these - or ANY - morons want to get on you-tube or wherever this is posted, they should swallow a couple dozen Mento's and chug a 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke. This way, their selfish stupidity only hurts themselves and not an innocent victim.

While my outrage from what I saw on the morning news was similar to what Paladin expressed in his posts, I find it hard to justify the use of firearms (which I own and am licensed to carry) to "shift the balance" in a situation like this. That goes beyond self defense. HOWEVER, in light of the overwhelming disparity in making things even, I think the girl would have been justified in grabbing whatever she could find (a lamp, broom, weapon of ANY kind) and using it with deadly intent as she saw fit to get herself out of that house as quickly as possible.
My personal opinion is that the eight "participants" should be tried as adults for conspiracy to commit assault, battery, incitement to riot, and gross indifference for the "lookouts". After the criminal trials, the civil suits should begin immediately to bring the severity of their kids actions home to their parents.

It doesn't take a village to raise a child.......it takes two parents who are responsible and involved enough in their kids' lives to know when to praise and reward, when to say no, and when to administer a good beating - without the threat of the government sticking it's nose into what goes on in the home. That's not abuse - that's the effective use of a parenting tool.

Kids today have no fear of their parents , their teachers, and in many cases the police, and inasmuch have no regard for the consequences of breaking rules. They feel they can simply call Child Protective Services and the justifiably angry parent will be removed from the house and placed under arrest. Too often, a parent administering corporal punishment is arrested for Child Abuse. A beating without good cause IS abuse. A beating WITH reason is "effective parenting". I got enough beatings growing up to know the difference. I wasn't abused - I was punished when I deserved it. I never got into any criminal mischief because I knew facing my Father would be worse than anything the Courts could do to me.
Today's kids use the system to get away with almost everything short of murder. The sickening part is that their parents plead their case for them at times like this.
Makes me want to put each one of these little pukes in a room with six assailants - one at a time - and see what the kids and their parents have to say then.

 

That is totally rediculous. These teenagers need to be put in jail for a year so they have a chance to think about what they. Very sad.