The father of a Lawrence 14-year-old, who was beaten by a Wichita boy during a basketball game in March, says the family is grateful charges were finally filed Thursday.

“It is a relief to know that this isn’t something that wasn’t blown out of proportion and it was serious,” Dale Vestal said.

Frustrated at the pace of the investigation, Vestal eventually released to the media a video showing the pummeling while the two boys ran down the court during the game in Newton. The video showed up on CNN, the Fox News Channel and a segment on Geraldo At Large.

The Wichita player caught on video hitting Coulter Vestal has been charged with misdemeanor battery. Harvey County Atty. David Yoder said the boy will be tried as a juvenile. Because of his age, the boy’s name was not released.

Coulter, who will be a freshman at Central Junior High School in the fall, was playing for the Lawrence Jayhawks in a Mid-America Youth Basketball tournament on March 26 in Newton.

The video shows Coulter and the player for the Wichita Showtime exchanging elbows as they run down the floor. Then the Wichita player grabs Coulter around the neck and throws him to the court, pummeling the motionless teen before coaches from both teams intervene.

The boy could be sentenced to up to 28 days in a juvenile facility, Yoder said.

Dale Vestal said Coulter has healed after he suffered a severe concussion, broken braces, cut lips, swollen eyes, knots on the back of his head and blurry vision, which recently cleared up.

Weeks after the incident, Coulter played in a Leavenworth tournament with the Jayhawks, and he has also played competitive baseball this summer.

“He looks at it more as hopefully this is finally bringing something to a close more than anything,” Dale Vestal said.

The family hopes the Wichita boy charged can get help with anger management, if he is convicted.

Vestal says he believes eventually charges would have been filed but that the media attention probably helped expedite the process somewhat.

“We’re just pretty happy that things are going in the way that we expected them and hoped they would have. It would have been such a quiet little thing if the officials in Newton had done their job when they should have,” he said.