Florida sheriff’s office releases “shock video”

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BARTOW, Fla. — The video shows 16-year-old Victoria Lindsay curled up on a living room couch, shielding her head from the repeated punches of a teenage girl while other girls scream in the background.

It was March 30, shortly after 8 p.m. Six girls had gathered in a Lakeland house to confront Lindsay about trash-talking about them online, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.

But they didn’t stop with words. Lindsay told investigators in a sheriff’s office report that April Cooper, 14, had slammed her head into a bedroom wall, knocking her unconscious.  The blows resumed, primarily from 17-year-old Brittni Hardcastle, after Lindsay awoke in the living room, according to the sheriff’s office.

The incident was recorded on video the teens planned to post on MySpace and YouTube as retaliation, the sheriff’s office said.

“Ooh, yeah, baby. Ooh, yeah!” a girl says in the background. The sheriff’s office said the voice was that of 16-year-old Cara Murphy, who was holding the video camera.

Both Lindsay’s family and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd on Monday called for legislation against such “shock videos” or for social-networking sites to enact standards to prevent posting this type of material.

These videos are “causing our children to take on a different culture and think this is fun, funny and OK,” Lindsay’s father, Patrick, said in a phone interview.
His daughter, who suffered a concussion, has permanent hearing loss in her left ear and blurred vision in her left eye, he said. She also has nightmares. “She’s scared. She’s upset,” he said.

After releasing Monday a three-minute video segment of the beating, Judd said he didn’t want to fulfill the teens’ aim of publicizing their attack but thought it important “to educate the parents about what their kids are doing.”

“It’s incumbent upon us as a society not to accept this,” Judd said. “This pack mentality is just absolutely absurd. … Regardless of what this victim may or may not have said, there’s no justification for this.”

The sheriff’s office charged eight teenagers in the attack, six girls whom investigators say took turns beating Victoria Lindsay and two boys whom they say acted as lookouts. All are charged with felony battery and felony false imprisonment.

Three girls — Hardcastle, Brittany Mayes, 17, and Mercades Nichols, 17 — also are charged with felony kidnapping, the sheriff’s office said. Judd said the girls drove Lindsay around and threatened to beat her again if she reported what occurred to law enforcement. Then they dropped her off at an intersection.

One of the teens, Stephen Schumaker, 18, of Lakeland, was booked into the Polk County Jail. He is free on $5,000 bail.

Because of their ages, the others are being held at the juvenile assessment center, the sheriff’s office said. Judd said he has asked prosecutors to charge all of them as adults.

All the girls who were arrested attend Mulberry High School, arrest reports say.

‘The Truth Will Come Out’

The attack occurred at the home of Nichols’ grandmother on Calendar Court West, Judd said. The grandmother had allowed Lindsay to stay with her and Nichols over spring break. She was at work during the beating. She was appalled upon learning what had happened, Judd said.

Schumaker’s father, Robert, has denied his son’s involvement, saying neighbors told the Schumakers that Stephen and the other boy, Zachary Ashley, 17, were not at the house acting as lookouts.

Ashley’s family declined to comment. However, Nichols’ mother, Christina Garcia, said Ashley’s mother was trying to obtain surveillance video from a convenience store to prove Ashley was at the store at the time of the beating.

Garcia also denied that Nichols beat Lindsay.

Lindsay “embarrassed these girls,” Garcia told News Channel 8. “She said she was going to kick their you-know-what’s,” and called them “slutty.”

Reached by phone, families of the other teenagers either declined to comment or said more details would be revealed.

“If it happened, it happened. We’ll have to see what takes place,” said Hardcastle’s grandfather, Charles Platt.

“We know what Brittany said and it’s a lot different than what’s being told,” said Mayes’ grandmother, Martha Proctor. “The truth will come out.”

Judd: Lindsay Didn’t Fight Back

Asked about the teens’ claims that they were not involved, sheriff’s spokeswoman Donna Wood said the investigation supported the charges.

Judd added that one of the boys stuck his head in from outside and told the girls to quiet down because neighbors could hear the fight.

Investigators reviewed the video frame-by-frame and found no evidence Lindsay tried to fight back, Judd said.

On the video, Lindsay stands up once Hardcastle stops hitting her and says, “You want me to leave, I’ll go home.”

A girl in a red T-shirt steps forward and punches her.

“No, you’re not leaving,” Hardcastle says, shoving Lindsay against a corner by the front door near glass shelves holding knickknacks.

“Don’t hit the shelves! Don’t hit the shelves!” can be heard in the background; the sheriff said the voice was that of Nichols.

Hardcastle and Kayla Hassell, 15, scream at Lindsay, asking what she doesn’t like about the other girls.

“It’s not fair, Brittni!” Lindsay yells.

“It’s perfectly fair! It’s one-on-one!” someone replies from off-camera.

“You have to fight back. Fight back!” Hardcastle yells, punching her again. “What, you gonna cry like a little girl?”

Someone off-camera — the sheriff’s office says it was Murphy — let the other girls know when the video was about to end.

“Seventeen seconds left,” the girl says as the blows continue. “Make it good.”