Attorney reviews video of attack on African American boy
IOWA COUNTY, Wis. (WKOW) — The attorney representing a 14-year-old teen attacked in the Town of Pulaski last month wants the group of boys involved to be held accountable.
Cell phone video shared with 27 News in August shows a group of teenagers assaulting a Black teen. In the video, racial slurs can be heard during the incident.
27 News turned over the video to the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office on August 22 and the agency began an investigation. In a preliminary report released September 2, Iowa County Sheriff Mike Peterson says they determined the assault was not racially motivated and the 14-year-old was targeted because of past behaviors.
The Iowa County Sheriff’s Office says investigators spoke with a witness who was there.
“He (the witness) further explained the confrontation stemmed from the victim’s prior behavior — including attempting to steal a firearm, assaulting a female, and making threats — rather than race,” stated a news release about the investigation.
Attorney B’Ivory LaMarr is representing the 14-year-old victim in the August 17 incident. He declined to comment on the accusations against his client, saying his prior history is separate from this incident.
“Irregardless [sic] to whether the victim was the individual who is alleged to have committed these acts, I think that’s completely beside the point here. There have been no criminal charges whatsoever against the victim,” LaMarr told 27 News.
LaMarr said he wants to hold the people in the video accountable.
“When I seen that level of violence, this is not a fight, this was an attack,” LaMarr said. “I think that anyone who watched the video, who can hear the racial slurs that I’ve heard and that many other advocates have also heard, definitely believe that this escalated and it was, at least in part, a factor of racial hate,” LaMarr told 27 News Wednesday.
LaMarr said the family reached out to him to represent them in this case and his client is ready to talk with authorities. In their news release, the sheriff’s office stated the victim and his family had not made themselves available to be interviewed by authorities.
With the permission from Iowa County Sheriff Mike Peterson, 27 News shared his phone number with LaMarr’s team for them to connect. The sheriff told 27 News interviewing the victim will help them determine if anyone should face charges, including the victim for the allegations against him.
LaMarr urged authorities to take another look at their preliminary findings of the August 17 incident.
“I think that the evidence based off of the racial slurs that can be heard in a video at least that I present, warrants further investigation into potentially escalating any charges that would be referred to a hate crime,” LaMarr said.
“At the very least, I would expect assault charges, battery at least at the misdemeanor level. I think that what we see can potentially even rise to a felony,” LaMarr said.
