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3 Green Bay teens get jail time
for beating classmate
by Andy Nelesen, Green Bay Press Gazette, April 8, 2003
Original URL:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_9666907.shtml
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Three Green Bay
teens were convicted Monday of beating up a 15-year-old disabled
classmate in October.
Cole Young, Shawn Quayle and Justin Bower, all 18, pleaded no
contest to misdemeanor party to the crimes of battery and
criminal damage to property. They were originally charged with
felony physical abuse of a child and criminal damage to
property.
According to the criminal complaint, the boys chased the victim
— who was riding a bicycle — from Ninth Street through Colburn
Park to Fisk Street and down Seventh Street. The suspects rode
in a minivan as the victim pedaled west along Mason Street,
crossed Military Avenue and fled through Fireman’s Park.
At Kennedy Elementary School, the suspects hit the victim’s bike
with the minivan. The older boys held the victim on the ground,
kicked him and spit on him and choked him with his shirt. At one
point, Young asked the victim, “How does a steel toe feel?” and
then stomped on the victim’s head.
The victim, who is now 16, did not appear in court. His parents
were present for Monday’s hearing. The victim’s mother said he
suffers from high-functioning autism.
Quayle and Young were sentenced to 90 days in jail. Their
lawyers declined to accept probation as a punishment because
both young men said they were joining the U.S. Marine Corps and
were expected to report for duty in August. Being on probation
would disqualify them from joining.
Brown County Circuit Court Judge Kendall Kelley described the
incident as “outrageous.”
Quayle told Kelley he was sorry and remorseful for his actions,
which he said were “stupid and childish.”
“What it was, in fact, was brutal … that’s different,” Kelley
said.
Bower, who is not joining the military, was sentenced to two
years’ probation and 30 days in jail. The young men must pay
restitution of $469 for the victim’s medical bills and damage to
his bicycle. |
