This whole thing sickens me. -SD

Deputies: Teens Made Video of Beating For Web

By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 6, 2008

Updated: 04/06/2008 08:08 pm

TAMPA - Six teenage girls took turns punching and kicking Victoria Lindsay while others made a video recording of the beating, which went on for 30 minutes.

Two other teens kept watch outside, even knocking on the front door to tell the girls they were making too much noise and that neighbors were becoming curious, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

Stephen Schumaker


While they were beating her, the girls taunted Lindsay, bragging that they were going to post video of the attack on YouTube and MySpace, according to an arrest report.

Deputies last week arrested eight teens accused of taking part in the March 30 beating, which left Lindsay with a concussion, damage to her left eye and ear and numerous bruises, the sheriff's office reported.

Stephen Thomas Schumaker, 18, of 6020 Calendar Court W. in Lakeland, was arrested on charges of false imprisonment and battery. He was one of the lookouts, according to his arrest report.

Schumaker was released after posting $5,000 bail, jail records show.

Schumaker could not be reached for comment Sunday night, but his father, Robert, said his son had no involvement in the beating.

Robert Schumaker said he talked to neighbors who told him his son was not at the house acting as a lookout.

"They didn't do anything," Robert Schumaker said of his son and another teenage boy, also arrested and accused of being a lookout. "I would like for the detectives to listen to the neighbors and clear my son's name."

The six girls accused of attacking Lindsay were arrested on the same false imprisonment and battery charges, both third-degree felonies. The teens, whose ages are unknown, were charged as juveniles and booked into the Polk County Juvenile Assessment Center.

Lindsay's father said the teens attacked her to make a video that might become popular on YouTube, the video-sharing Web site. But the mother of one of the girls arrested said Lindsay had provoked the other teens by threatening and insulting them on the MySpace social-networking Web site.

According to Schumaker's arrest report, here's what happened:

Lindsay showed up at a friend's house on Calendar Court, down the street from Schumaker's, where she had been staying while having problems with her parents. Her friend and another girl started yelling and threatening her. After walking into her room, Lindsay was confronted by another girl, who insulted and threatened her. The girl hit Lindsay in the face several times, then slammed her head into the wall, knocking her out.

Lindsay woke up on a couch surrounded by six girls, who took turns punching and kicking her. She tried to leave several times, but the girls held her down and blocked her from leaving.

The girls drove the victim to another house and let her get out of the car, but with the warning: "If you go to the police, the next beating will be worse."

Deputies recovered the video, which shows the beating and the teens blocking Lindsay's attempts to escape.

The sheriff's office is expected to release the video and a transcript early this week.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.
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Photo and article courtesy of Google
Editing by SDRoads
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My take: Look, after asking how he doesn't understand how he is involved in this, and stating how wrong it was for the girls to do that, he surprisingly added, "This is little girl stuff!" After viewing the video umpteen times, I mean, it IS blasted all over the news, "little girl stuff"? I think not!!! My heart goes out to Victoria and her parents. God be with you. -SDRoads

View the video, above, shortly.