[sportbos]

This is horrible, and it makes me sick to think that people would do this, whatever age they are!

***

8 Teens Charged In Videotaped Beating

LAKELAND, Fla. - A local sheriff said he's furious after a teenage girl was beaten while a YouTube video was made. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd called the videotaped beating shocking, outrageous and animalistic. The eight teenagers face charges of felony battery and false imprisonment.

The video showed a teenage girl cowering in a corner as one of a group of six girls hits and screams at her. She was later transported to Lakeland Regional Medical Center and treated for a concussion and damage to her eye and ear.

"She said she was going to kick their you-know-whats and how slutty they are and calling them much worse names than sluts," mother Christina Garcia said.

Investigators said the ambush beating was meant for YouTube. WPBF News 25 will not post the most violent portions of the video.

"If you type in girls fight or fighting, it's all over YouTube," Lake County Public Schools representative Wolfgang Halbig said.

Halbig is currently the director of risk management for Lake County Public Schools. He said for teenagers, taping fights is a way of glorifying them, and he believes it's only going to get worse.

"Eventually, you're going to see shootings on YouTube. I think it's an open market out there. It really bothers me that we're giving young people a mechanism to create violence.

Halbig said he believes the beating was premeditated, and the Florida Legislature needs to wake up and enact laws to stop it.

"My child, your child, anyone's child has a right to live in an orderly environment, and when people plan to do bodily harm, they need to be held accountable," Halbig said.

Copyright 2008 MSNBC

[dWSOj26H]

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

[D6Ri5u13]

'Dr. Phil' staff bails out Florida girl charged in videotaped teen beating

BY DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Dr. Phil is on the hot seat again - this time for bailing out a teenage thug.
TV shrink Phil McGraw was forced to scrap a show about the YouTube girls-on-girl beatdown on Sunday amid outrage that his show bailed the suspected ringleader out of jail.

The show admitted that one of McGraw's producers paid $30,000 to a Florida court to spring Mercades Nichols, 17, from jail so she could appear this week on his "Dr. Phil" show about the beatings.

The beefy producer ran a humiliating gantlet of news cameras as he led Nichols and relatives out of the court.

"We have exclusivity," the hulking flunky told reporters who unsuccessfully tried to question the teen.

A reporter from one CBS-affiliated TV station insisted that she should get an interview because her station runs "Dr. Phil."

"We carry the 'Dr. Phil' show," the reporter shouted.

"That's fine," the producer replied before bundling the teen into a car.

Red-faced show executives said the staffer violated "policies" - and canceled the planned interview.

"In this case, certain staff members went beyond our guidelines," "Dr. Phil" spokeswoman Terri Corigliano said in an e-mail. "We have decided not to go forward with the story as our guidelines have been compromised."

The show said it was normal procedure to help guests with financial issues like travel expenses or lost wages in order to secure their appearances on the show.

But bailing out accused criminals apparently went too far.

Two of the eight teens accused in the videotaped attack are still behind bars, a Polk County sheriff's office official said.

The Lakeland, Fla., teens face kidnapping and misdemeanor battery charges. Three also face a felony charge of witness tampering.

The case drew nationwide attention after the girls brutally attacked a cheerleader at their school on March 30. They videotaped the assault, and posted it on the Internet.

Millions of Americans have seen the shocking clip on the Web or on TV.
It's not the first embarrassing about-face for Dr. Phil.

McGraw abandoned a planned show about troubled pop star Britney Spears this year after he was criticized for confronting her at a Los Angeles hospital.

Copyright 2008 NY Daily News

[wp6Eg2Fm]

Dorktor Phil is shameless .

[slima]

Hop on the runaway beer truck.