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YouTube Adds To Melee In Videotaped Beating Case

Image provided by the Polk County Sheriff's Office

Six teenagers are charged in the beating of a 16-year-old girl in Polk County.

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By RAY REYES and BILLY TOWNSEND

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 10, 2008

Updated: 04/10/2008 12:11 am

BARTOW - Outraged by a video circulating on the Internet and cable TV of a Polk County teenager being beaten by other girls, dozens of people from across the country are calling Darlene Ashley at all hours and filling her answering machine with threats.

"We're now coming to get you," a caller from Texas said in a message. "There is nowhere to run. Surrender yourself. Resistance is futile."

A caller from California said: "So you like to beat up on girls, huh? You want to meet somewhere in Florida? I'll teach you a lesson."

But Darlene Ashley, 42, who works at a Lakeland bakery, has nothing to do with the episode.

"I'm not even related to these people," she said. "I don't have any children."

Nonetheless, her phone number and address were posted Wednesday on YouTube, along with those of the teenagers accused of being involved in beating the girl, Victoria Lindsay.

The YouTube poster probably thought she was the mother of 17-year-old Zachary Ashley, one of the teens accused of being involved in the March 30 incident. Visitors to the site are subsequently making the same mistake - although Darlene Ashley said she didn't know of Zachary Ashley before the video became publicized.

The calls started about 1 a.m. Wednesday, Ashley said. By the afternoon, her mailbox was full. The calls come in about every five minutes, she said.

She said she doesn't know why her number was singled out. There are 40 listings for the last name "Ashley" in Polk County, with 18 in Lakeland. Zachary Ashley's parents go by a different last name, records show.

Lakeland police told Ashley they would schedule extra patrols in her neighborhood. The Polk County Sheriff's Office told her detectives called YouTube webmasters and asked that the image showing her phone number be removed. As of Wednesday night, her number and address were still on the site.

Phone calls to Google, the parent company of YouTube, were not returned Wednesday.

Ashley said she is considering getting a new number, but her husband prefers to keep the current one.

"All they could do was reassure me," Ashley said of authorities. "We don't know what to do. I'm a victim now, and I don't appreciate it."

Judd Criticizes 'Pack Mentality'

On Sunday, the sheriff's office arrested and charged eight teenagers in the attack: six girls investigators said took turns beating Lindsay, and two boys - one of them Zachary Ashley - they said acted as lookouts.

April Cooper, 14, Kayla Hassell, 15, Cara Murphy, 16, Stephen Shumaker, 18, and Zachary Ashley, Brittni Hardcastle, Brittany Mayes and Mercades Nichols, all 17, each were charged with felony battery and felony false imprisonment.

The minors, who attend Mulberry High School, were taken to a juvenile detention center. Shumaker, the only adult, was taken to Polk County Jail, where he was released Sunday night after posting $5,000 bail.

On Monday, the sheriff's office released a three-minute clip of the video. The girls had gathered at a Lakeland house to confront Lindsay about trash-talking them online, investigators said. The incident was recorded because the teens planned to post the video on MySpace and YouTube as retaliation, the sheriff's office said.

By Tuesday, albeit in a roundabout way, their intent was fulfilled with the public release of part of the video. Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said he didn't want to grant the teens their wish of publicizing the attack - hence the sheriff's office released only a segment of the video.

"It's incumbent upon us as a society not to accept this," Judd said. "This pack mentality is just absolutely absurd."

Judd and Talisa Lindsay, the mother of Victoria Lindsay, appeared on "The Today Show" on Tuesday.

The video was still a media sensation Wednesday, so much so that a Polk County judge issued a gag order on the parties involved saying they could not discuss the case outside of court.

The publicity surrounding the video has "extended well beyond what needs to be done to educate the public," Polk Circuit Judge J. Michael McCarthy said at a hearing Wednesday.

At the heart of the hearing was Judd, whose television appearances, decision to release the video and aggressive language in describing the suspects drew protests from defense attorneys. Just more than hour after the gag order was issued, Judd announced his intention to appeal.

"I have a responsibility to advocate on behalf of victims, the public's safety, and the public's right to be informed about crime in our community," Judd said.

However, Judd said he would comply with the order if it is not overturned.

The Presumption Of Innocence?

In his petition for the gag order, James R. Franklin, the attorney for Zachary Ashley, argued that coverage of the case has "created a substantial likelihood that the child cannot receive a fair trial."

Franklin included as an exhibit a photocopied Google search showing 50,800 matches for "polk county video beating."

Most of Franklin's attention was on the actions of Judd and the sheriff's office.

He argued that Judd was "inflaming" the coverage of the incident on television, the Internet and in newspapers and encouraging the public to convict and sentence the accused without consideration for the law.

"Let's just forget about the presumption of innocence," Franklin said. "Let's just lynch these children."

The judge issued a verbal order, which will be put in writing later. The order appears to apply to those directly involved in the case, including the eight defendants, the victim, law enforcement officers and attorneys, including prosecutors.

Media lawyer Gregg Thomas, whose clients include The Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8, objected to the petition as being unnecessary at this early stage of the case. He said the reasoning behind the need for it was a sort of judicial Internet panic.

"There's this overarching concern that the Internet diminishes the capability to have a fair trial," Thomas said. "It's ridiculous."

Researcher Melanie Coon contributed to this report. Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920 or rreyes@tampatrib .com. Reporter Billy Townsend can be reached at (863) 284-1409 or wtownsend@tampatrib.com.

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