Posted on 04/12/2008 11:50:59 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
BARTOW, Fla. -- One of eight teens accused of taking part in the notorious videotaped "animalistic" beating of another Central Florida teen snickered while a judge issued bail on Friday.
April Cooper, 14, giggled and attempted to hold in her laughter as she was told that she was being held on $36,000 bond, Local 6 News reported. It's not known why Cooper giggled.
A judge set bails ranging from $30,000 to $37,000 for each during their first court appearances.
They also were ordered to stay away from their high school and Internet social networking sites, such as MySpace. The judge also ordered them not to have any contact with the victim or each other.
The accused range in age from 14 to 18. The state attorney's office said all will be tried as adults on charges that include kidnapping.
The judge has ordered everyone involved in the case not to talk to the media. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd called the incident "animalistic" attack when he released the video on Monday.
The videotape of the beating has been viewed widely on national TV and the Internet this week.
Families Seek Protection
Families of the teens accused in the beating have received death threats from across the country after their addresses and phone numbers were posted on the Internet, inside a YouTube video.
The new YouTube video calls out for the public to take action, saying, "let your voices be heard."
The video then posts the girls' names, their phone numbers, addresses and other information.
Local 6 reported that some of the families have spoken with deputies about the possibility of getting protection for their safety.
The six girls are accused of luring Victoria Lindsay to a home so they could videotape her beating over some apparent online "trash talk."
Stephen Schumaker and Zachary Ashley are accused of acting as lookouts during the attack.
Schumaker, the only one of the eight arrested to be released from jail, told Local 6 that his family is receiving death threats from all over the United States.
"I don't see why I'm even in this whole situation," Schumaker said in an interview for Local 6.
The videotaped beating was seen by more than 500,000 people as of Thursday night and prompted e-mails to Local6.com from all over the country.
It was the most-viewed video on YouTube at one point Thursday, Local 6 reported.
Wrong Information Posted Online
Meanwhile, an innocent family was targeted by angry callers after their information was mistakenly posted online.
The couple said they got around 300 angr
y, abusive calls from all over the country Wednesday.
I don’t think they really understood what they were doing - after all, people on TV shows get up and walk away after being hit with rocks, right? But any decent person should have recoiled at attacking a person like that.
I would say a short time in custody (to kids that’s a lifetime, they miss their PROM!!!) with a good civil suit to pay the pain this girl has suffered. Jail is terrible but working at Micky D’s paying restitution for 25 years to your victim is probably just as scary to these kids.
Such an excellent post.
“You’re an absolute liberal idiot”
My mistake was engaing in conversation with a moron like you.
Is that song about the 1968 Dem. convention?
I respectfully disagree with you. I believe they knew exactly what they were doing. I just believe that they did not sit down beforehand and seriously consider the consequences that could happen. Being stupid like that when you are young does not mean you don’t know what you are doing. It means you didn’t think long term about what you made plans to do.
It is not the same thing as not knowing what you are doing.
What do you think the punishment should be? 10 years? 15? Life? Death penalty for kinapping?
Average rapist and other thugs are being released because their is no place to hold them. However, when a MEDIA CASE such as this is tried, people who hardly comitted as heinous crime as some of the people getting released, the book is thrown at them.
14 Year old Girls.
Get a grip.
What if your teenage girl had her rebellious issues and joined some stupid gang and beat up a kid?
Will you be in favor of life sentence then? For her being so evil?
Gonna throw out the Hitler card again, you whack-job?
Get lost. Too bad there isn’t a ignore feature. Your psychotic rants are not worth reading.
Yeah, every normal person on this planet, when they see these girls, they see future Ted Bundies.
14 year old criminals being tried as adults. They are not what comes to mind when someone thinks of a 14 year old girl.
When you get the crap beaten out of you by a bunch of teenage minors and they leave you permanently disabled, I hope you don’t mind the judge letting them off with a few hours of community service. Maybe they’ll even all band together and lie and say you were trying to rape them. The DA will love to put a guy who wants to rape innocent little girls behind bars.
Then stop replying to me. Putz.
Have to disagree with you, they are both evil and stupid. And now, God willing, they will have many years of their lives behind bars to contemplate their actions. They should be in their sixties when they get out of prison.
Yep, same category, different degree.
You are the one who said it was OK because they were acting out their fantasies. What they did was a premeditated, organized, brutal life-threating attack on a human being.
So, how did she come to and get home? Did these thugs call an ambulance?
“What do you think the punishment should be? 10 years? 15? Life? Death penalty for kinapping?”
The punishment should fit the law as accorded to adults.
If this were my child who was attacked, I would expect the judge to review the law of the state and dole out the appropriate sentence any judge would give to unremorseful violent criminals.
If my daughter savagely beat someone so severely they lost consciousness - and THEN proceeded to beat her again after she regained consciousness - I would not expect any leniency in her case.
If this victim were my daughter, I would be thanking God right now she is still alive, no thanks to these evil bitches.
I don’t know.
Anyone know?
“Sorry, I’m voting for evil. They obviously grew up in very amoral, peer-dominated environments. A lot of middle class parents - and these appear to be middle class kids - feel absolutely unable to set down any moral or ethical guidelines for their kids. Of course, this may be because they have none themselves. But in general, many of them turn their child rearing over to the “pack,” and these kids live in a sort of Lord of the Flies world.”
Profoundly accurate!
Yeah, they’re about to find out how funny this situation really isn’t.
Any attorneys here? Any idea what a minimum sentence might be for these pukes?
I dearly hope they get beaten up regularly in prison although, odds are, guards will always come to their rescue before they’ve sustained what their victim did.
No cheerleading for you, sweetie.
OK? Don’t think I said it was OK. I am just trying to figure what causes 14 year olds to act this way. I bet their iPods are full of Gangsta-rap and 50-cent and their rooms are filled with gnarly imagery and probably this was NOT the first time this group engaged in some level of violence.
All the signs are ignored by adults in their lives and when they cross the line, price is going to be their lives.
Message needs to be sent to adults too. Otherwise, we would see more of this insanity in future.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.