Odds or Ends

Lakeland, Fl - Eight teenagers have been arrested on charges alleging they beat another teen in an “animalistic attack” so they could make a videotape to post on YouTube.
According to authorities, seven of them remained in juvenile detention while the eighth one, who was charged as an adult, was released on bail.
The teenage victim was attacked on March 30 by six teenage girls when she arrived at a friend’s home, authorities said.
One of the girls struck the 16-year-old victim on the head several times and then slammed her head into a wall, knocking her unconscious, according to an arrest report.
Later, a clip of video that was released by the Polk County sheriff’s office shows the teens blocking a door and hitting the girl.
"It’s absolutely an animalistic attack,” Sheriff Grady Judd said Tuesday on NBC’s “Today.” “They lured her into the home for express purpose of filming the attack and posting it on the Internet.”

The victim’s father stated that the teens intended to post the video on the video-sharing Web site YouTube.
A mother of one of the defendants said her daughter had turned the tape over to police.
The sheriff’s office said that after the attack, three of the teens forced the victim into a vehicle and drove her to another location, where she was told she would be given a worse beating if she contacted police.

All eight suspects were arrested April 2 and charged with battery and false imprisonment. The three teens who took the victim to the second location are also charged with felony kidnapping. The teen victim was treated for a concussion, damage to her left eye and left ear, and numerous bruises, police said.