Aspies For Freedom

Baseball coach to stand trial for bribing boy to hurl ball at autistic teammate

By Moustafa Ayad
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Friday, December 30, 2005

UNIONTOWN -- A Uniontown youth baseball coach charged with hiring an 8-year-old boy to carry out an attack on his autistic teammate for $25 this summer will stand trial next year after rejecting an offer for a plea bargain.

Mark Downs Jr., 27, refused to throw himself at the mercy of the court yesterday after Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon offered him a general plea agreement that would have allowed a judge to decide the amount of jail time he would receive in return for a guilty plea.

Mr. Downs, of Dunbar, is charged with two counts of criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault, corruption of minors, conspiracy to commit simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

The criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault carries a maximum 10-year sentence and the corruption of minors charge has a maximum five-year sentence. Both charges also carry substantial fines.

Mr. Downs' refusal paves the way for a trial beginning May 1 that has already drawn the attention of Dateline NBC, ABC's "Good Morning America," Sports Illustrated, "Inside Edition" as well as news stations in Japan.

"This trial is going to be a circus," said Thomas Shaffer, Mr. Downs' attorney. "I spent $850 on my cell phone bill on top of the 1,200-minute plan I already pay for just answering phone calls."

Police say Mr. Downs told Keith Reese, 8, of Uniontown, on June 27 that he would give him $25 to hurl a baseball at 9-year-old Harry Bowers Jr. , his autistic teammate, as a part of a mid-summer plot to bench Harry because he was one of the worst players on the team.

Keith later testified at a preliminary hearing that after he hit Harry in the groin with a ball, Mr. Downs told him "to go out there and hit him harder."

Jennifer Bowers, Harry's mother, testified Mr. Downs told her Harry should sit out the remainder of the team's playoff game because "the balls must be after him."

The autistic boy's father, Keith Reese Sr., testified that Mr. Downs confessed to him after the game, telling him, "I did something ignorant. I asked Keith to hit Harry with the ball."

Mr. Shaffer said Mr. Downs was misinterpreted after telling his players in jest that he would give them $25 to hit an umpire with a ball.

Mr. Shaffer said much of the evidence that supposedly links Mr. Downs to the intentional "hit" is contradictory. He said the parents have changed the dollar amount of the alleged bribe several times and that Harry's mother took her son to the hospital five days after the incident.

The R.W. Clark Youth Baseball League, which runs the youth league in Fayette County, investigated the matter, but it did not substantiate the claims.

After news broke of the alleged plot, sports columnists across the country decried Mr. Downs' behavior as reprehensible. The New York City newspaper Newsday went as far as to name him the 10th worst sportsman on its annual list of 12 known as the Dirty Dozen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Moustafa Ayad can be reached at mayad@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1731.)

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05364/630087.stm

Alternate sentencing time. Point Downs in a boxing ring with me for an hour.

That'd probably be classed as over-sentencing (Or more likely, capital punishment)  :lol:

Still, I'm happy - the media will tear him apart, "Coach bribes minor to attack cripple kid [sic]", and he'll get what he deserves.

Coach Rejects Plea Agreement In Disabled Beaning

The Associated Press
Dec 30, 2005


(KDKA/AP) UNIONTOWN A T-ball coach charged with offering a player $25 to bean a disabled teammate refused a plea agreement and will instead stand trial in May.

On Thursday, Mark R. Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar, refused to plead guilty to criminal solicitation to commit assault and other crimes.

Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon wanted to let a judge decide what sentence Downs would receive.

But Downs' attorney contends his client did nothing wrong and said he would take his chances at trial in a case that has drawn the attention of TV news magazines and sports columnists across the country.

"This trial is going to be a circus," defense attorney Thomas Shaffer said. "I spent $850 on my cell phone bill" answering phone calls from the media and others.

Prosecutors contend Downs did not want 9-year-old Harry Bowers Jr. to play because the boy isn't as talented as other players, and is mildly mentally retarded and autistic.

Another player, Keith Reese, testified at a preliminary hearing that he threw balls that hit Bowers in the groin and the ear before a June 27 playoff game, because Downs offered him $25 to make sure Bowers wouldn't be able to play.

"He told me if I would hit Harry in the face, he would pay me $25," Reese testified in July.

After the first throw, Downs "told me to go out there and hit him harder. So I went out and hit him in the ear," Reese testified.

Shaffer contends Downs made a joking remark about paying players to hit an umpire with a ball, and that was misinterpreted.

The team is part of the R.W. Clark Youth Baseball League.

The game was in North Union Township, 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

League officials investigated and said they couldn't confirm that Downs did anything wrong, although Downs won't be allowed to coach again if he is convicted of criminal charges.

Source: KDKA Fayette
http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_364114817.html

We should never have invented the ball for them. We should have left them lobbing rocks at each other.  
Alison :mad:

Probably should have never invented electricity for them, either. But what the hey.