8122 - update on that article.

[scottobear]

Third suspect arrested in attacks on homeless

Police arrested a third person in connection with last week's beatings of homeless men in Fort Lauderdale, a city official said Monday night.

"There was another arrest made in the case," said city spokesman David Hébert. He had no other information about the person's identity.

Earlier Monday, 17-year-old Thomas Daugherty made his first appearance at the Broward County Courthouse.

The teenager with dark, bushy hair and a soft, childlike face cried while looking over his shoulder toward his mother, who sat alone in back of the courtroom. He would not be going home with .

Daugherty and friend Brian Hooks, 18, face allegations of murder and aggravated battery after a predawn beating spree Thursday in Fort Lauderdale that left one homeless man dead and two hospitalized.

A county judge refused to release Daugherty to home detention on Monday and ordered that he remain in juvenile detention for 21 days. Hooks' hearing was rescheduled for today after his attorney, Jeremy Kroll, failed to appear in court. Hooks is being held in the Broward County Jail.

Judge Steven DeLuca also signed an order for a psychological evaluation of Daugherty, whom friends call Tommy. Daugherty is being treated as a juvenile, and prosecutors have not yet decided whether he will be charged as an adult.

The sight of saddened, shackled Daugherty clashed with images caught on a Las Olas Boulevard surveillance tape of an aggressive youth beating a defenseless homeless man with a baseball bat last week.

"He's totally overwhelmed, scared, confused," said Daugherty's attorney Bob Nichols, who is handling the case with law partner Jerry Williams. "He doesn't act like a thug. He's just a very nice, average, middle-class teenager."

Daugherty, who alternated between his mother's home in Tennessee and his father's home in the Plantation Isles neighborhood, recently dropped out of high school and had been enrolled in a local vocational school, Nichols said.

Students who attended South Plantation High with Daugherty until this past winter vacation when he returned to Tennessee described him as a "good kid," a "sweet kid."

"Tommy has defended people," Emily Becks, 15, said Monday while hanging out by the lake at Plantation Heritage Park near the suspects' homes.

She said she once saw Daugherty stick up for another student who was being verbally bullied.

Jaclyn Mount, 16, has played pool with Daugherty in his garage.

"They're not bad kids," she said of Daugherty and Hooks. "If I didn't see the videotape I wouldn't have believed it."

Holly Keegan, a 2004 graduate of South Plantation High, was moved to tears when she saw the videotape.

"I thought it was so disturbing that you could do that for the hell of it," said the 20-year-old student of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, who once had a geometry class with Hooks. "He didn't seem like someone who would go beat bums up for the hell of it."

Keegan said she remembers Hooks as a guy who partied and skateboarded, drove a black truck and had a lot of friends.

"Even though he can be annoying and stupid," Keegan said, "he really is a nice kid."

Shortly after the attacks that occurred within three hours and four miles of one another, the two teens left the state. Within 48 hours, two witnesses signed statements describing the fatal assault of Norris Gaynor, 45. Daugherty and Hooks surrendered to police Sunday.

The first victim was Jacques Pierre, 58, beaten at 1:20 a.m. as he slept on the downtown Fort Lauderdale campus of Florida Atlantic University and Broward Community College. That attack was caught on tape and led to nationwide telecasts, prompting a surge of tips to police from students, parents and neighbors who said they knew the teens.

Gaynor, the second victim, was attacked about an hour later as he slept on a park bench across the street from the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The third report came in just after 4 a.m., when an injured Raymond Perez, 49, crawled from the garden at Church by the Sea and flagged down a crew of firefighters.

Daugherty's attorney, Nichols, said he spent an extensive amount of time speaking with Daugherty before his surrender. He said he came away with the impression of a respectful, well-spoken teenager who has never been in trouble before.

"He had a clean record at all of the schools he's been at," Nichols said. "He hasn't been a disciplinary problem. He's never been in front of a juvenile judge. He's never had a criminal accusation. He's squeaky clean."

Daugherty watched as his mother, Bridget, left the courtroom Monday. She gestured toward her teary-eyed son and whispered, "I love you."

Staff Writers Susannah Bryan and Lisa Huriash contributed to this report.

---

All of this stuff took place a few blocks from where I was living 2 months ago, and where my brother was living homeless, up to about 4 months ago. Premeditated Murder? I think trying them as adults is just fine, thanks. I see a lot of red when I think of someone preying on the mentally ill or just plain down on their luck. However, I see what happened as inevitable... the homeless population in Fort Lauderdale is *everywhere*. When I lived there, I was solicited for money on an average of every three blocks, and the sickly, drunken begging went from polite to too-close-for-comfort a few times.

Comments

[weezeroni.livejournal.com]

This story, and the video caught by the University security camera of one of the beatings sickened and saddened me. I'm glad they are caught and they can be tried s whatever will net them the harshest punishment. Preying on a human was exactly what this was.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

It really upset me, too, and it hit altogether too close to home. I wonder what sort of spin would've been put on it if one of the homeless guys was able to defend himself and blunted the idot skulls of his attackers with a 2x4? Would it change how the homeless are viewed as a whole?

[peradouro.livejournal.com]

This makes me sad/angry. So many "baby faced" kids doing damage. In my sister's apartment complex a group of around 14 kids beat, shot (with paintball and BB guns) and generally terrified a kid who had to come every day to a friend's apartment after school because his mom worked. He usually had the older kid who lived there with him but for some reason that day had to walk alone. These kids came from different neighborhoods and it took 7 hours to find them all. We figure they must be friends at school or something. The parents tried to sue the city because the police confiscated the guns. I despair to think what might have happened to this child if my brother in law and other neighbors had decided it was "boys being boys".

annotation

[peradouro.livejournal.com]

The average age of these kids was 11-13.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

That is sickening.... The angry ape part of the brain that makes people run in packs and beat down people singly is pretty painful to read... it's like a reverse posse in action.

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

I stumbled across this video the other day of kids fighting: http://www.youtube.com/w/Girl-Fight-at-T.C-Roberson-High-School?v=ZVafGR91V5o&feature=Views&page=5&t=t&f=b

The surrounding kids seem like they're in ecstasy over the fight. If you watch it to the end, and pay attention to the kid's faces, they're laughing and smiling - they're so riled up & excited about it. Even after the fight has ended. It's like watching dogs who get excited when another dog is attacking/killing a cat.

After seeing the video, I got curious and searched for "fight" on that site, and was amazed by how many vids kids have uploaded of this stuff. One was enough for me.

Have to say...having a parent who was a principal for many years, and then only recently only retired from being an assistant super-intendant...it's pretty bizarre to know what the kids pull, and what their own parents let them get away with. It boggles me that the school board has to waste money & time, putting up with parents putting up with parents who would demand hearings for precious little Johnny/Susie, who was just being a kid when they brought weapons to school, illegal substances, or broke another kid's arm (after taunting them for a year), etc...

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

Almost everytime I write to you, it looks like I've written very little in the entry window. Press submit, and it looks like a massive book! Geez Weez. :D

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

That's what I like, quality and quantity! :D

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Sad to say that I do understand it... crowds in schools just love a fight. most kids (and adults, I think) love to see other people bashing on one another. Maybe a subset of folks wanting to see a car accident or blood at a hockey match.

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

I'm all embarrassed now! You replied with only 7, I replied with 1537. ;)

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

but you had so much content! :D I'm very guilty of giving short, snipped answers when I really could go on and clarify my point... I think it's something to do with email replies over an actual converastion. If I were to sit down and discuss things with you with my voice, or actual correspondence (as opposed to the IM quality that LJ messages have) I'd probably be prone to go on and on about a given subject.

er, like this entry.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

whoops! I was too quick on the draw, took a flash-reply and went with it! :D

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

I was trying to fix my spelling. :D

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

See? Quantity *AND* Quality! I just go off all higglety-pigglety!

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

::snork::

Nah, I don't think you're guilty like many others are. I have a few on my list who reply only in 1-2-3 word sentences any time they comment -- and their journal entries are the same way. I tend not to interact with them much, and often take those journals off my list. I'm the same way with people who do that in person. I need deep, man...Deep! :D

I'm gonna start replying to you with only one word comments. I won't be embarrass myself that way. :D

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

I meant to say - I messed up my grammar again!
So I'm higglety-pigglety going off half-cocked, too. Writing sucks, compared to in person yapping!

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Well, you seem to do the former quite well, and we've never had call to do the latter!

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Have a happy Newton headbutt to feel better! :D

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

I was tempted to reply with just "OK!"

But that would've been mean. I actually like your meaty responses quite a bit... you show a lot of forethought and evaluation of any given topic, from dollhouses to federal law.

I appreciate that... keep up the good work!

I have a weirdo variety of LJs on my list, but I'd say about 10% gets cycled every quarter...and 80% is a long time core group.

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

Hey...does your bro know about what happened?
Would telling him about it make any difference? Maybe make him sleep in more hidden areas...hopefully?

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Nah, he doesn't think like that... besides, he's pretty good at handling himself on the street. (He's not nearly as thin as he was, and is a giant 30-yr old guy... not a prime target to his mind... he doesn't realise that anyone hit with a bat will go down pretty easily, especially if they're sleeping.

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

I would have laughed. :D

I evaluate everything. Ya just don't know. I've had people tell me that because I can talk about so many things - they feel I'm smart, and they are not. It intimidates some. That makes me sad.

I was also gonna reply with a one word answer to one of the replies....but I forgot. :D

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Those people should know that they can build up brains by talking stuff out with folks that they see as brainy !

I've had a few people say "but you already knew that" about things that I had no idea... exes especially. They don't realise that nobody can know *everything* about *anything*. fresh perspectives and methods of review can almost always uncover some resource that was hidden prior.

I'm glad that you've got such a gamut of knowledge and opinion. :D

[weezeroni.livejournal.com]

Interestin point. A priest who was interviewed said that people there throe rocks at the homeless.