Court erupts in melee
Teens get 4 to 6 years for beating Wednesday, April 8, 1998BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Angry family members started a brawl after four students were sentenced to prison for badly beating a fifth.
(WCPO-TV)
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As soon as a legal fight ended, a courtroom brawl began Tuesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court after a judge sentenced four Western Hills High School students to four to six years each in prison for beating another student nearly to death.
Families angered by what they considered harsh sentences of the teens began a ruckus that looked like a slugfest right out of the Jerry Springer show.
It began when Larry Wright, 19 -- a relative of John Wright, 17, who received the harshest sentence of six years in prison for felonious assault -- began yelling at the victim, 17-year-old Brendan Rice. The Western Hills senior had been left unconscious in a school practice field in Price Hill Jan. 21 by attackers who punched, kicked and stomped him.
Larry Wright lunged for Mr. Rice and yelled: "You dead, man!" That sparked the brawl, and the sobbing, rowdy crowd of about a dozen people spilled into the hall.
Beating victim Brendan Rice, 17, looks at the defendants at their sentencing Tuesday.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Larry Wright of Over-the-Rhine faces charges of intimidation, inducing panic and inciting violence.
Natasha Holley, 18, of English Woods is charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and two counts of assault on an officer. Steve Holley, 25, of Westwood faces charges of assault on an officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. And LaBrenda Walker, 23, of Over-the-Rhine faces charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
"It's a shame that people will look at this and say no wonder they (the teens) got the sentences they did," said Clyde Bennett II, an attorney for Harris Neal, 16, who received the lightest sentence of four years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery.
While Mr. Bennett said he thought his client's sentence was too stiff, he said Judge Thomas Crush was fair.
When Judge Crush announced the sentences he said there was "absolutely no question this was a racially motivated attack."
Besides Mr. Neal and John Wright, Leroy Harrow, 17, and Charles Holley 16, received five years each for felonious assault. All four teens, who were charged and sentenced as adults, apologized to Mr. Rice.
Beating victim Brendan Rice, 17, looks at the defendants at their sentencing Tuesday.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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"I'm sorry for what happened," John Wright said. "And as for being racist, I'm certainly not racist. My father taught me to love everybody."
Attorneys for all of the defendants emphasized that the attack was not racially motivated. But the families realized the judge disagreed.
"They really socked it to these black boys because they hit a white boy," said Irene Wright, John Wright's mother. "We're going to try to appeal."
Others said while they sympathized for Mr. Rice, they felt wronged themselves.
"Any African-American boy gets beat up, it never goes to trial," said Afafa Abdul-Bari, Mr. Neal's uncle.
Kristen DelGuzzi contributed.
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