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Fla. teen accused in videotaped beating released, 1 still jailed
Published Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 5:38 p.m.


BARTOW, Fla. — Only one of the eight teens accused of participating in the videotaped beating of a classmate remained behind bars after a seventh bonded out Sunday, authorities said.

Brittany Mayes was released on $33,000 bond, said Polk County Sheriff's Office spokesman Scott Wilder said. Still jailed is Stephen Schumaker, 18.
Phone listings for the families of Mayes, Schumaker and Nichols could not be found Sunday. The company that bonded out Mayes, Bridgett Bail Bonds, declined to comment.

The teens, the youngest of whom is 14, face kidnapping and misdemeanor battery charges for the violent beating, which has been viewed widely on national television and the Internet. The state attorney's office has said the six girls and two boys will be tried as adults.

One of the accused, Mercades Nichols, was bailed out by employees of the "Dr. Phil" television show over the weekend.

A spokeswoman for host Phil McGraw, Terri Corigliano, did not immediately respond to phone messages and an e-mail sent by The Associated Press on Sunday. In an e-mail Saturday night, Corigliano wrote that "certain staff members went beyond our guidelines" in paying the bond.

"These staff members have been spoken to and our policies reiterated," She wrote. "In addition, we have decided not to go forward with the story as our guidelines have been compromised."

The show's producers were in the process of booking guests for a program about the case, Corigliano said.

Copyright 2008 Herald Tribune