WildHoneyAlways
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
From SI.com
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.