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2 Plead Guilty To Roles In School Bus Sex Assault

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TBO.com

Published: August 12, 2008

Updated: 08/12/2008 11:21 pm

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• 2 Acted As Lookouts

Jermeil Douse

Jacolbi Williams

Branden Allen

TAMPA Two Dixie Hollins High School football players pleaded guilty Tuesday to being lookouts while a third player sexually assaulted a teenager on a school bus in May.

Jermeil Douse, 16, and Jacolbi Williams, 15, were charged as juveniles with being principals to sexual battery and false imprisonment, but pleaded to felony battery and false imprisonment, according to attorneys involved in the case.

Each was placed on 18 months' probation and adjudication was withheld, which means that if they successfully complete their terms, they will not have convictions on their records.

"He's able to have a future and have a life" with no formal conviction on his record, Alexis Wert, Douse's attorney, said Tuesday. "He is sorry. He intended no harm for the victim or her family."

All three suspects played football at Dixie Hollins High School in Pinellas County. Branden Allen, 18, is charged with sexual battery and false imprisonment of the 15-year-old girl in May.

The attack happened after 6 p.m. in May aboard a bus that was on school grounds at 4940 62nd St. N., authorities said. The late bus transports students who stay after school for extracurricular activities or sports.

The driver had left the bus to round up students who were running late, Pinellas sheriff's deputies said. While the driver was gone, Allen opened the bus door and went inside. The girl, whose name was not released, followed to get a seat for the ride home, detectives said. Douse and Williams boarded next.

The arrest affidavit said the girl was sexually assaulted twice and that she tried numerous times to get Allen to stop. The incident ended when other students arrived to board the bus, deputies said. Relatives of Allen initially said publicly that the sex was consensual, but an attorney for the girl said a video on the bus shows it was not.

"We can't believe this could happen on a public school bus," said Paul Kinsey, the attorney for the girl. "We're outraged the school won't release the videotape to us to further find out the facts of the case."

The victim's family told News Channel 8 Tuesday that the girl is undergoing counseling.

The girl's parents intend to sue the school district for negligence, Kinsey said.

The school district declined to comment.

News Channel 8 reporter Lynn Carson contributed to this report.

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