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   Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled boy

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Topic: Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled boy (Read 178 times)

Rhune
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Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled boy
« on: Jul 28^th, 2005, 8:31pm »

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'I did something ignorant'
Coach to stand trial for offering T-ball bounty
Posted: Thursday July 28, 2005 5:37PM; Updated: Thursday July 28, 2005 7:51PM

UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Standing so he could be seen from the witness stand, a youth baseball player calmly told a courtroom how he beaned a mentally disabled teammate with a ball during warm-ups to knock the boy out of the game.

Eight-year-old Keith Reese said that he hit teammate Harry Bowers because his coach offered him $25 to do so.

A district judge ordered T-ball coach Mark R. Downs Jr. to stand trial on charges including criminal solicitation to commit assault after both boys testified at a preliminary hearing Thursday.

Downs, 27, of Dunbar, is accused of offering the payment to Reese before a June 27 playoff game.

Prosecutors claim Downs did not want Bowers to play because the boy isn't as talented as other players. Bowers has a speech impairment, a form of autism and mild mental retardation, said his mother, Jennifer Bowers.

Downs' attorney, Thomas W. Shaffer, denied the allegations.

But Reese, fidgeting occasionally and often resting his arms on the witness stand, did not waver in his accusations.

"He told me if I would hit Harry in the face, he would pay me $25," Reese, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, told a small courtroom crammed with spectators.

Reese said the coach wanted Bowers out of the game. His first throw hit Bowers in the groin area, the second in the head.

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 said.

The victim's mother said the beaning left her son's ear beet-red and slightly bloody.

Reese said he had never warmed up with Bowers before; he usually tossed the ball around with two other teammates on the Falcons.

Reese's father, Keith Reese Sr., said he thought something was wrong. "I told my wife I don't know why Keith's warming up with Harry because Harry can't even catch the ball and Keith's very good."

After her son was hit, Bowers said the coach suggested her son sit out the game, which he did. "He said the balls must be after him," she testified.

Downs will be arraigned Sept. 15 in Fayette County court on two counts of criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault and one count each of corruption of minors, criminal conspiracy and recklessly endangering another person.

The elder Reese said that after the playoff game, the coach admitted to having offered the younger Reese money to hurt his teammate.

"He told me, 'I did something ignorant. I told [Keith] I'd give him $25 to hit Harry in the face to take him out of the game,"' Reese said.

The coach's attorney said his client likely was referring to a previous game, when Downs jokingly told his team he'd offer $25 to "anybody who can line drive the ref with the ball" when he was cautioned by the umpire.

But the elder Reese said it wasn't the first time the coach indicated he wanted to keep Bowers from playing. Reese said Downs had called his home at one point during the playoffs and said that if Bowers' mother called, "you just tell her the game's canceled, we're not going to play it."'

The younger Reese said Downs never paid him. When the boy asked for the money after the game, which the Falcons won, the coach said he'd get the $25 if he signed up for the fall season, the boy testified.

The team is part of the R.W. Clark Youth Baseball League, which ended its T-ball season earlier this month. The game was in nearby North Union Township, 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

League President Eric Forsythe said league officials looked into accusations against Downs before the season ended, but could not prove the coach did anything wrong. But Forsythe said neither of the boys involved in the incident was interviewed.

League organizers have said Downs won't be allowed to coach again if he is convicted of criminal charges. Shaffer said Downs is not suspended and remains a coach in the league.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

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Dixie
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Re: Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled
« Reply #1 on: Jul 28^th, 2005, 8:46pm »

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That story makes me sick to my stomach. The fact that this guy is still a coach is appalling. It's Little League for God's sake!! And T-ball no less. I think personally that parnets should not be allowed to coach their own kids.

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If you can't be a good example -- then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.

Rhune
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Re: Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled
« Reply #2 on: Jul 28^th, 2005, 8:54pm »

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Yeah, I'm pretty offended by the thought that they are still allowing him to coach or keeping him on staff at this time. :no:

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FLORIDAGIRL
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Re: Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled
« Reply #3 on: Jul 29^th, 2005, 8:47am »

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It makes you wonder what kind of back ground checks they do on prospective coaches.

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Genius
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Re: Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled
« Reply #4 on: Jul 29^th, 2005, 10:42am »

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I'm appalled. Shocked

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azure
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Re: Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled
« Reply #5 on: Jul 29^th, 2005, 11:23am »

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I read about this when it first happened

makes me sick

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shamon
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Re: Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled
« Reply #6 on: Jul 29^th, 2005, 11:52am »

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all for what?

a write up as champions in the paper? perhaps a picture to go with it? a plastic trophy?

butthole....

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When others demand that we become the people they want us to be, they force us to destroy the person we really are. It's a subtle kind of murder. The

luci
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Re: Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled
« Reply #7 on: Jul 29^th, 2005, 1:03pm »

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Absolutely, a total JERK! And he's a volunteer, right?
My son grew up with some bad coaches in baseball.
Sure turned him against it, not to mention me and
my thoughts of these ego centered men who coach
their own sons!

Most Dads are fair to all, but the ones who aren't
make it bad for the rest.

The sad part is people will read the article
and the word they will hang on is COACH,
and make it hard for the qualified ones.

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yesteach
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Re: Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled
« Reply #8 on: Jul 30^th, 2005, 12:19am »

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It's junk like this that makes me thankful my dd never got into organized sports. Wannabe athletes living vicariously through children because they weren't good enough to make it on their own. We found out real fast, when she injured her knee and couldn't run and the coach told her she had to run or get off the team, he didn't care about her knee... that it's not organized "sports", it's organized bullying...

OH, she was about 13 at the time, and told him her knee was way more important that running in a softball game.. she'd just quit.. and walked out of the practice right there on the spot..

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luci
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Re: Coach on trial for paying kid to hit disabled
« Reply #9 on: Jul 30^th, 2005, 9:47am »

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.......and this type of treatment is what teaches our young innocent children there are a lot of hurtful people in this world!
We've said many times,
"give the sandlot back to the children!".

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"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and
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