17-year-old sentenced for videotaped beating

EUGENE, Ore. – A judge sentenced a Junction City teenager to eight days in a juvenile detention facility for the videotaped beating of a smaller boy in October.

The judge also placed the 17-year-old boy on three years of probation, ordered him to do 40 hours of community service and required him to attend anger management counseling.

He also warned the boy and his friends to avoid retaliating against the victim.

“If I hear anything about that, the first person who is going to be looked at is you,” Juvenile Court Judge Kip Leonard told the defendant Tuesday.

The boy acknowledged committing third-degree assault in the Junction City High School parking lot after a night volleyball game.

The video, which was set to rap music and later passed around school, starts with the defendant filming another boy slapping the victim.

The defendant then passed the camera to another boy, who continued filming while the defendant punched the victim in the face, chased him and held him while continuing to punch him.

Footage of the beating later turned up on the Internet and broadcast news reports.

In a written statement, the victim’s mother said the attack was horrifying and humiliating for her family.

“Living in a small town doesn’t mean your children are safe with people like this on the street,” she wrote.

Leonard asked the teenager a series of questions about the attack, and later noted the boy tended to offer excuses.

At one point, the boy claimed the victim had said he wanted to fight him, a claim the judge dismissed as improbable given the fact the defendant was with a large group of friends and the victim is small in stature and was alone.

“Just face up to it,” the judge told the defendant.

“I do 100 percent take responsibility for it. It was all me,” the defendant replied.

The boy who first slapped the victim is awaiting a hearing on a charge of fourth-degree assault in Junction City Municipal Court, a court spokeswoman said.