School Bullying Council

By CINDY SCHARR
cscharr@delcotimes.com

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MEDIA COURTHOUSE — Charges were dropped against one of the Upper Darby juveniles charged in a Jan. 11 bullying incident, while six others remained detained, five on misdemeanor offenses.

The seven defendants — ranging in age from 13 to 17 — were all in county custody, accused in the assault of Nadin Khoury.

One of the juveniles, a 17-year-old, video recorded the others hitting, kicking and shoving the 13-year-old victim in a tree, then hanging him by his coat on a fence, police said.

The victim and the defendants are all students at the Upper Darby School District’s Opportunity Center, an alternative school for students with behavioral issues.

Felony kidnapping and aggravated assault charges were dismissed against five of the juvenile defendants during separate pretrial hearings Thursday before Common Pleas Judge Kathrynann W. Durham.

The five entered an admission, which in adult court would be a guilty plea, to false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, simple assault and conspiracy, all misdemeanors.

Assistant District Attorney Dominick Spigarelli asked Khoury if he agreed with agreement to drop the more serious charges in exchange for the admission of the three misdemeanors.

“You wished me to make this offer to these juveniles?” Spigarelli asked.

“Yes,” replied the youngster.

The question-and-answer session was repeated for each defendant.

One of the juveniles, a 16-year-old boy, asked for a trial.

Public defender David DiPasqua said his client was not guilty of the charges, adding that the videotape of the incident would prove him innocent.

“He has been falsely accused of committing various offenses,” said DiPasqua. “There will be trial testimony my client did not participate in this incident by multiple witnesses.”

DiPasqua said that the video would show his client helping the victim. He added that the victim’s mother hugged and apologized to his client and said his client was willing to take a lie detector test.

The trial was scheduled for Feb. 17.

All charges were dropped against the 17-year-old boy who recorded the incident. Spigarelli asked the victim about the 17-year-old’s involvement in the incident.

“You’ve indicated to me that (he) was not involved in the assault on you in any way, shape or form. Is that correct,” Spigarelli asked.

The victim said it was.

Attorney Douglas Smith asked that his client be released. Durham said that since all charges were dropped, he was free to go.

Durham ordered the five juveniles who entered admissions, along with the 16-year-old demanding a trial to remain in the juvenile detention center until their next court proceeding. A detention hearing will be held for the five on Feb. 22.

All of the juvenile defendants were ordered to stay away from the victim and his family.

Defense attorney Tracie M. Burns, who is representing one of the defendants, said her client has accepted responsibility for his actions.

“It was a fair outcome,” she said.

One of the defendants, a 15-year-old who entered an admission, stood before Durham and said, “I’m sorry for what I did.”

That boy’s attorney, Daniel McGarrigle, later said the outcome was “an appropriate resolution.”

“These are the appropriate charges,” he said, adding that some of the comments made by police “ramped up” the situation and turned it into something it really wasn’t.

He declined to name any police officer or official in particular, but said labeling the teenagers thugs and hoodlums was over the top.

“He is a 15-year-old who made a mistake,” McGarrigle said of his client. “Who hasn’t made a mistake when they were 15?”

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By MARLENE DiGIACOMO, mdigiacomo@delcotimes.com

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NADIN KHOURY … Victimized in attack

MEDIA COURTHOUSE – Reporters were kept out in the cold Wednesday after a judge cleared the courtroom for the Right to Detain hearings involving seven juveniles charged with the Jan. 11 Upper Darby bullying incident in which a 13-year-old was allegedly tormented, kidnapped and assaulted.

Judge Mary Alice Brennan, over the objections of the district attorney’s office, ejected reporters and others from the hearing. Officials later confirmed that all seven will remain in the Juvenile Detention Center at Lima pending a Feb. 10 pre-trial hearing.

Reporters stood outside the Fronefield Building in the courthouse complex as relatives and attorneys of the defendants filed out from the closed hearing.

One relative of one of the teenagers commented that “he’s a good kid hanging out with a bad crowd.’’ And another took offense at Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood’s “rather bulldoggish approach.’’

At an earlier press conference Chitwood termed the bullying of the boy as “as probably as heinous a case as I’ve ever seen.’’

Philadelphia Defense Attorney Geoffrey Seay, who represented a 14-year-old, said that he asked for the closure since mental health issues were discussed, which he contended are confidential.

He described the hearing for his client as very brief and confirmed the juvenile was detained pending another hearing.

County Public Defender David DiPasqua said the six he represented were also held pending risk assessment and psychological evaluations. He said during the Feb. 10 hearing it would be determined whether some of the juveniles are low risk and can be released.

The seven are facing charges including kidnapping, assault, unlawful restraint and recklessly endangering another person.

The statute covering such hearings states that the “general public shall not be excluded from any hearing…Pursuant to a petition alleging delinquency where the child was 12 years of age or older at the time of the alleged conduct and where the alleged conduct would have constituted one or more of the following offenses’’ which includes crimes such as kidnapping.

UPPER DARBY — The seventh suspect wanted for his alleged participation in a horrific bullying incident was arrested Tuesday morning at school, police said.

The youth was absent on Monday when Upper Darby police charged into the Opportunity Center on the Upper Darby High School campus around 8:30 a.m. and arrested six suspects, ranging in age from 13 to 17 years old.

All seven are charged with allegedly attacking and pummeling 13-year-old classmate, Nadin Khoury, who was walking home from school 1 p.m. Jan. 11.

Upper Darby School District officials called police to report the 14-year-old boy wanted showed up for school Tuesday morning and became sickened at the prospect of incarceration.

“The kid was crying and throwing up after he was arrested,” police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said. “He was saying he ‘was never involved with anything like this, I was never involved with anything like this.’ When the other six were arrested, they were laughing and thought it was a joke. It’s not a joke. Bullying is a crime and we’re going to treat it like a crime.

“The boy arrested (Tuesday) received the same treatment as the other six,” Chitwood said. “We took him out of school in handcuffs to send a message loud and clear that any type of bullying will not be tolerated.”

The alleged attack against the 13-year-old was recorded on the cell phone of one of the assailants with the intention to air it on YouTube.

“We got the video before it went out on YouTube,” Chitwood said. “They beat this kid, kicked him, drug him through the snow and stuffed him in a tree, upside down, and hung him on a fence. It was seven on one.”

According to Chitwood, several of the youths involved have been harassing the victim inside and outside of school for some time.

“He’s claiming the day after the incident he’s back in school on Jan. 12 and one of the guys in the group comes up and shows him the video,” Chitwood said. “He threatened him and says, ‘If you tell anyone, we’re going to get you.’ They’ve been harassing him. Apparently, this has been going on for a long period of time.”

The school district’s public information coordinator Dana Spino said the district has a specific bullying policy in place, which is described in detail on the district’s website, and declined to comment further on the incident.

Spino said the district had no knowledge or report from the victim about being approached by the others in school after the Jan. 11 attack.

The victim’s sister said her brother received a phone call from the principal of the Opportunity Center to stay home from school for his safety.

The Opportunity Center is an alternative learning center for students with behavioral issues attending either morning or afternoon sessions to complete their education. Currently four eighth-graders and 69 students in ninth through 12th grade are enrolled.

“The student was told not to come to school for reasons not related to his safety,” Spino said.

She did not reveal the reason, citing the district’s privacy code involving students.

Two of the seven students arrested have criminal records and all seven are facing charges of kidnapping, unlawful restraint, reckless endangerment, false imprisonment and assault and are detained at the Juvenile Detention Center in Lima.

The seven students will have a right-to-detain hearing at 10 a.m. today in Media.

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