Fla. Teens Charged In Taped Beating
Mistaken Identity: Wrong Family Getting Harassing Phone Calls
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Eight teenagers, two boys and six girls have been arrested after filming the beating of a girl and threatening to post the video on the Internet, sheriff's officials said Tuesday, April 8, 2008. (CBS)
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Beaten Teen To Stay Home
The parents of a teen beaten on a tape intended for YouTube say that she will be home-schooled from now on. Talisa and Patrick Lindsay and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd speak with Kelly Wallace.
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Teens Not Sorry After Attack
After teens gang up on a friend to become famous on YouTube, the victim's parents and a local sheriff speak to Maggie Rodriguez about the details in this case.
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Teens Beat Girl In House
"CBS News RAW:" 8 teenagers are facing battery and false imprisonment charges after filming the beating of another teen and threatening to post the video on the Internet.
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Being charged as an adult carries with it much stiffer penalties, possibly including up to life in prison on the kidnapping charges. Facing charges of battery, false imprisonment and kidnapping are Mercades Nichols, 17, Brittini Hardcastle, 17, April Cooper, 14, Cara Murphy, 16, Britney Mayes, 17, Kayla Hassell, 15, Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18. The two boys are accused of acting as lookouts outside the house in which the beating took place on March 30.
Meanwhile, a central Florida couple says they're being hounded by angry callers who mistakenly think they're connected to the notorious videotaped beating.
Darlene and Jerry Ashley's phone number was mistakenly posted by a user of the YouTube video-sharing Web site, along with the numbers of the other teens charged in the beating.
Callers think the Lakeland couple are the parents of one of the teen boys involved who has the same last name.
They say they got around 300 angry, abusive calls Wednesday.
A judge has ordered most everyone involved with the case to stop talking to the media.
The videotaped beating released on Monday by the Polk County Sheriff's Office was just one of five fights filmed over a period of 30 minutes. At one point the victim's head is slammed into a bedroom wall and she's knocked unconscious. Investigators say the beating happened on March 30th in Lakeland while the victim was spending time at a friend's house during spring break.
Portions of the video were released by the sheriff's office and posted on CBS affiliate WTSP-TV.
"There was talk about apparently after the fact, apparently there's other students that knew that they were going to post this just for the thrill of everyone to see it," the victim's mother, Talisa Lindsay, told CBS News' The Early Show. "Which is just outrageous."
The victim's parents have decided to have her home-schooled, they explained on The Early Show Wednesday. To watch that interview, click here.
"When we had them in custody at the station, they were laughing about it, saying, 'Well, I guess this spring break we won't go to the beach," Judd told The Early Show. "One of the suspects asked the detective, 'Am I going to get to go to cheerleading practice tomorrow?"
"They showed absolutely no remorse at all," Judd said.
As far as I'm concerned, MySpace is the anti-Christ for children.
The victim's father, Patrick Lindsay, said the teens' motivation for the attack was to produce a video that would become popular on YouTube, a video-sharing Web site.
He told The Early Show that he has not been able to watch the video, that he is too distraught, although his wife has.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



Susan Gray of Pgh Pa.
And as badly as I feel for the parents and their child, I wish they would realize that blame needs to be placed solely on the persons who committed the crime.
Books, music, movies, television, video games, Youtube, Myspace, what''s next in the blame game?
Can''t wait until they go to jail and find out how tough they aren''t!
"...Thanks to the Democrats, our society always wants a check in the mail when liberalism surfaces..."
I remember a time when we didn''t have these sick rightwingers attributing every negative news story to their schizophrenic "left vs. right" outlook on a culture we supposedly share with them. I''m surprised people as ignorant as "temple" can log in and type.
Todays teens have no grasp of how their actions hurt others. Cyber bullying is the new wave and parents and teachers have got to wake up to what is going on. Teens can computer circles around 90% of their elders and half of the remaining elders don''t have any idea what can be done.
These kids are going to have to shoulder the burden of punishment for their actions. But their parents, and the parents of other teens need to sit up and take notice that they must still monitor and if necessary restrict their teens activities. Otherwise, this will only be the beginning.
I would give them all at least 24 months in prison to think about what they did.
The parents of these kids should also do prison time.
Interesting idea
I can''t imagine why anyone would do something like this. They are like a pack of wolves.
Savage.
EXCELLENT! now, if every parent in the country would do this, we can close up and sell those costly A/C brick and mortar schools, then sell off those $175,000 school buses that burn $4 a gallon diesel fuel to transport students 3 blocks from home because the parents are too LAZY to take their own kids in, of course the kids cant walk 3 blocks because its hard work and they might get COLD, brrrrr!
This would do away with school shootings, bullies in the playground and so much more.
Ive SEEN it here where theres a school bus stop THREE FREAKING BLOCKS from the school, they cant walk THREE BLOCKS???? gezus, no wonder a large percentage of them are FAT, and out of condition- they get door to door limo service.
Your heart is in the right place but i wouldn''t trust these teens to be around anyone in plublic.
"I AM SO ASHAMED. I DIDN''T RAISE HER THIS WAY. WHY SHE WOULD TAKE PART IN THIS AND NOT WALK AWAY IS EMBARRASSING. SHE WILL DO HER TIME, THIS IS APPALLING."
Instead, the parents are defending what their children did. Minimizing it. Having no compassion or empathy for the victim. It is so sad that in our society today, family''s act this way. It is no wonder these girls did this. Their parents are immature and irresponsible and their children are products of that behavior. It is sickening.
HAVE SOME REMORSE.
No surprise there, like I said, krappy parents breed krappy children
"its pity. childrens parents maybe need to chat at " intimateSPAMMER dotcom " share your experience and ask others to help you.
Posted by daynina"
Its more of a pity how you keep spamming this site for your stupid dating site url.
"I AM SO ASHAMED. I DIDN''T RAISE HER THIS WAY. WHY SHE WOULD TAKE PART IN THIS AND NOT WALK AWAY IS EMBARRASSING. SHE WILL DO HER TIME, THIS IS APPALLING."
Instead, the parents are defending what their children did. Minimizing it. Having no compassion or empathy for the victim. It is so sad that in our society today, family''s act this way. It is no wonder these girls did this. Their parents are immature and irresponsible and their children are products of that behavior. It is sickening.
HAVE SOME REMORSE.
Posted by FloydZepp at 09:05 AM : Apr 11, 2008
This is exactly the attitude that caused these kids to do this in the first place. Thinking that violence of any kind is acceptable. These kids don''t need to be killed, they need to be punished. If you kill them, what do they learn? What does anyone learn except that violence begets violence. Adults are supposedly smarter than teens. We should be able to come up with some creative punishments, that are not violent, and yet get the message across to teens that this behavior is not tolerated in a civil society.
You have a valid point as it is saying on the news they were supposed to be friends of the girl. If they treat a friend that way, who is to say what they would do to someone else. They would definitely need supervision if they had community service. After rereading my post, where I said parents teach their children how to walk/talk but not kindess and about other''s feelings, I meant many parents, not all. I wanted to clarify that before anyone said anything. The parents that are defending their kids, I would be horrified if my son was involved, even if he was just the lookout. Those boys are equally at fault because they knew what was happening, and did nothing to try and stop it. It is scary what teenagers are doing and what our society is coming to. Like the stories of teens thinking it is funny to beat homeless people. While in college to get my teaching degree, in my Teaching Social Studies class, we had to do some 20 something hours of community service. Instead of doing just one thing, I did several and took my son along too, to help. (He was about 8-9) I wanted him to learn about helping others. We did volunteer work with the Humane Society and at a homeless shelter, even helping to serve food to the homeless women. While we were struggling financially at that time, I wanted my son to see that there were many others even less fortunate than us and for him to be thankful for what we DID have (food, shelter, love, and quite a few possessions, including his toys.)
Posted by missybelle at 11:12 AM : Apr 11, 2008
So what you''re saying is that it is NOT okay for you to beat someone up. But it is okay for us to beat you up because you did it to someone else.
The only thing that you''re telling these kids is that it''s okay as long as it''s the many versus the few... which is EXACTLY what they did!!!!
Beating someone up to make a point... ANY POINT... is wrong. We as a society of supposedly civilized adults should be able to come up with more creative solutions instead of resorting to the same behavior that we are telling these teens NOT to commit!!!
You contradict your self in your own post!! You said that you are not advocating the beating of kids, but your very first line is that "I''m saying that I think they need to know the same pain and humiliation."
I am not advocating that they not be punished, I''m saying that they don''t need to be punished by having what they did to someone else done to them. They need to be punished, but not by doing the SAME THING TO THEM!!!!
That''s Called Hipocrasy!!!
I love it! Some of them were laughing about the whole incident inside the holding cell according to the Sheriff. I wonder how much laughing they will be doing in prison inside a cell with a mean hardened cellmate with a crewcut named Bubbette! These girls and boys are beings bereft of decency and need to be taught a lesson by unconventional means!
Posted by woodydx at 01:52 PM : Apr 11, 2008
So, so true. And why did they do it? So they could be ''somebody'' on Youtube. They will no doubt grow up and register as democrats.....once free from prison.
If they are convicted as adults when they get out of prison they will not have the right ot vote and cannot register as democrats or anything else.
If they are convicted as adults when they get out of prison they will not have the right ot vote and cannot register as democrats or anything else.
Posted by ranger1948 at 09:01 AM : Apr 13, 2008
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that is true..however that would not stop them ACTUALLY IT WOULD ENCOURAGE them more to think and agree with the liberal democrats..
Posted by SgtRDS at 05:40 PM : Apr 11, 2008
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wont happen.a lot of your fellow bleeding heart liberal would not allow that..THEY RATHER GIVE ANY CRIMINAL ACTION A SIGN OF AGREEMENT AND DEMAND A NEW LIBERAL REALITY SHOW ABOUT THIS.
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by ranger1948
April 14, 2008 2:00 AM PDT
- libsrweak
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See all 42 CommentsThis is true, however then they would still be with their own kind, more criminals.