Some Lawyers in Beating Case Speaking Out

LAKELAND | Now that the gag order has been lifted, a few of the lawyers representing the eight teen suspects in the March 30 beating of Victoria Lindsay they have decided it's time to talk.

Some of their clients were not as involved in the beating as the charges imply, they say, and the truth will come out as the case proceeds.

On Thursday, Melodie Lopez, who represents suspect Cara Murphy, said that all eight lawyers had agreed to challenge the gag order because they felt it was time their clients had their say.

"It's something all the defense attorneys agreed to," Lopez said at a news conference outside the Colon & Lopez law offices in Bartow. "Everything we've heard so far has come from law enforcement."

A circuit judge lifted a gag order Wednesday that had restricted Polk Sheriff Grady Judd and others from disclosing information in the videotaped beating of Lindsay, 16.

James "Rusty" Franklin, who represents Zachary Ashley, had argued that disclosures to the media, in particular comments made by Judd, were creating the "substantial likelihood" that his client could not receive a fair trial.

On Thursday, Lopez said that the initial attention drawn to the case resulted in the decision to charge all the teens as adults, rather than juveniles, regardless of how involved they were in the beating.

"When all this publicity came out originally it was very against anybody charged," Lopez said. "Everybody at that point looked at everybody the same. Because the public and the media were calling for action, they didn't feel they could be lenient."

But Murphy and some of the other teens should not have been charged with battery or kidnapping because they simply were not involved, Lopez said. And none of the teens should have been charged as adults, she said.

Lopez said Murphy was not guilty of any of the charges against her, pointing to Lindsay's witness statement as proof that Murphy had never hit Lindsay. "She was at the wrong place at the wrong time," Lopez said.

Ellis R. Faught Jr., who represents suspect Brittany Mayes, said Mayes had filmed some of the incident. Beyond that, he said, his client is innocent of her three charges.

Lawyers representing the six other teens did not return phone calls Thursday.

"We still maintain that she is not guilty," Faught said of Mayes. "I think the true facts are going to come out after a thorough investigation."

Others involved have said the same.

The mother of suspect Mercades Nichols, Christina Garcia, has long maintained that her daughter was not as involved in the beating as the Sheriff's Office has claimed, a fact that she said will come out as the case unfolds.

Garcia has said that her daughter could be heard off-camera shouting to let Lindsay leave. She has also said that Nichols never hit Lindsay.

Although the teens' pre-trial agreement prohibits them from using Internet chat rooms, social networking sites or forums, a profile claiming to belong to Mercades Nichols has appeared on MySpace.

Peace signs decorate the background of the recently-updated site, which also includes a black-and-white photo of Nichols and statements about starting anew.

"To Everyone, We all did some dumb stuff and now our futures are ruined," one paragraph reads. "Im just asking if yall can just wait until court to hear the truths and lies. I am currently moving on with a new life.[sic]"

The writer also says suspect Brittini Hardcastle is to blame for the beating.

Nichols and seven others were charged as adults with battery and kidnapping, felonies that carry maximum sentences of life in prison. The Sheriff's Office said Nichols and five other girls took turns beating and filming Lindsay on March 30 while two male teens stood outside the house as lookouts. The Sheriff's Office said the six teen girls threatened to post the video footage of the attack on MySpace and YouTube.

Those charged include Nichols, 17, April Cooper, 14, Mayes, 17, Hardcastle, 17, Murphy, 16, Stephen Schumaker, 18, and Zachary Ashley, 17, all of Lakeland, as well as Kayla Hassall, 15, of Mulberry.

Each face kidnapping and battery charges. Nichols, Mayes and Hardcastle also face a third-degree felony charge of tampering with a witness.

Those charges are not an accurate reflection of each teen's involvement in the crime, but rather a reflection of the sense of outrage at the case, Faught said.

Faught used the symbol of a funnel to describe the judicial process. At the top of the funnel swirls all the rumors, accusations and innuendos poured in by the Sheriff's Office, media outlets and Internet gossips, he said. Petering down to the bottom are the admissible facts. The truth. And that will all come out during the trial, Faught said.

[ Shoshana Walter can be reached at 863-802-7590 or shoshana.walter@theledger.com. ]