Juveniles charged in park beating
Warrants issued for four in assault on teen with disabilities
Four boys will appear in court today on charges they beat a boy with physical disabilities in a city park.
Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney announced Wednesday that her office had filed aggravated battery charges against the boys in connection with the May 21 attack on Josh Graves at Clinton Park, 500 Ill.
The youngest of the boys charged is 11. The oldest is 14.
The mother of one of the suspects said her son’s actions were out of character.
“I know he has to pay for what he’s done,” said LaDoris Dillon, whose 14-year-old son, Damian, is charged. “I just think he was with the wrong people at the wrong time.”
Dillon is a former bus driver, and in the past she’s driven Josh, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Dillon now works with adults who have disabilities — a fact that makes her son’s actions harder to explain, she said.
“He’s a good kid,” she said of her son. “It’s not like him.”
Dillon’s son’s name and the names of the three other suspects — Bradley Jamierson, 11, Chris Fannin, 14, and Marcus D. Spates, 13 — were posted Wednesday on Douglas County’s Web site after Kenney issued a news release.
6News video: Four boys charged in beating case
All four turned themselves in after warrants were issued for their arrest, officials said.
Dillon said she took Damian to the Douglas County Jail on Tuesday night, and he remained in custody Wednesday. He phoned once on Tuesday night, she said, and told her he’d been required to remove the braids from his hair.
She and other family members said they worried that he was being treated as an adult and that the publicity from the charge would scar him the rest of his life.
The case has been assigned to Douglas County District Judge Pro Tem Peggy Kittel. The boys will appear before her this morning for a detention hearing.
Graves’ mother, Teri Snell, said Wednesday that if the boys were found guilty in the attack, she thought they should be required to perform volunteer work with people with disabilities.
City Government
City of Lawrence ‘assessing options’ in the wake of racist and antisemitic hate speech shared at recent commission meeting
City of Lawrence campsite reporting form has received 230 reports since October; only 57 campsites confirmed
City Commission meeting interrupted by racist, antisemitic hate speech
Lawrence City Commission set for light agenda this week
Campers who remain at North Lawrence site after closing date will be trespassed, but city doesn’t expect that to happen
