Anybody read about this?
Tee-ball coach charged in assault
Arranged attack to sideline autistic player, police say
Saturday, July 16, 2005
By Moustafa Ayad, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Fayette County tee-ball coach was arraigned on felony charges yesterday that he bribed a 7-year-old player to throw a baseball at a mentally disabled teammate's face to keep the boy out of a game.
State police said Mark Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar, offered his star player $25 on June 27 to hit an 8-year-old autistic child with a baseball because he wanted to win the game.
"Just when you thought you had seen everything," said state Trooper Thomas B. Broadwater.
Downs' lawyer, Thomas Shaffer, said his client denies the charges.
"He has two children of his own," said Shaffer. "He could never do this."
Police said Downs asked player Keith Reese to hurt Harry Bowers, who is autistic. Reese threw a ball that hit Bowers in the left ear while they were warming up before a game. After Bowers didn't go down, Reese hit the child in the groin with the ball, police said.
When Bowers ran to tell the coach about the attack, Downs suggested that he sit out the game, police said.
When Jennifer Bowers, the boy's mother, confronted Reese about the deliberate throws, Reese told her the coach had asked him to hurt Bowers, police said. The boy was taken to an emergency room, where he was treated for swollen red marks on his ear and groin.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05197/539043.stm
Simply amazing how parents have to be so competitive even through their children.