ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) — Two attorneys who reviewed video of a locker room incident involving Albany Middle School football players said the footage supports a battery charge, but questioned whether it rises to the level of aggravated assault, the felony charge filed against eight students.

Alex Kaplan, an attorney with Brimberry, Kaplan & Brimberry, and Virgil Adams, an attorney with Adams, Jordan and Harrington, each reviewed the video separately. They did not see it prior to the interviews.

What the video shows

Kaplan described a student backed into the corner of what he said looked like a gymnasium locker room who was being confronted by a group of other students. Kaplan said the student backed into the corner is a white male with red hair, and the individuals confronting him appeared to be Black.

“You can clearly tell he’s the one backed into the corner by these other individuals,” Kaplan said.

Adams described the same scene, saying the students “seem to be just talking, and then they go over and start hitting him.” He said many of the strikes were open-handed slaps rather than closed-fist punches.

“It’s hits, and it’s more slaps,” Adams said. “Doesn’t last that long. And he gets up and he, you know, he appears to be okay.”

Both attorneys said the video begins with the student already backed into the corner, without context for what happened before the recording started.

“I’d be interested to see what transpired or what was said or what context we could get if the video had been rewound,” Kaplan said.

Assessing the charges

The eight students face aggravated assault and battery charges. Both attorneys said they believe the video supports a battery charge, but not aggravated assault.

Adams said Georgia’s aggravated assault statute typically applies when a deadly weapon or an “object, device, or instrument” is used offensively in a way that causes serious bodily injury, or when hands or fists are used in a manner resulting in serious bodily injury.

“I don’t see that there was any contact that rises to the level of being considered using the hands in a manner to cause serious bodily injury,” Adams said.

Adams said he reviewed our WALB interview with a police official who indicated the student suffered abrasions and bruises.

“That didn’t seem to rise to the level of an aggravated assault, which is a felony, 20-year felony,” Adams said.

Adams said battery, which is a misdemeanor, is committed when a person causes “substantial physical harm or bodily injury to another,” which the statute defines as harm visible to someone other than the person struck. He said that can include swollen lips, blackened eyes, or substantial bruises.

“I can see the battery being charged based on this, assuming that the young man did have the visible abrasions or whatever to his body or was caused substantial harm,” Adams said. “But I do not see any circumstances for aggravated assault.”

Kaplan reached a similar conclusion. “Probably not, but a completed battery, definitely,” he said of the aggravated assault charge. He added that the charges could “probably also could qualify some other charges as well.”

“Could it be charged as an aggravated assault, which is, as I understand it has been charged? Sure,” Kaplan said. “But probably the more appropriate charge would be a battery.”

Kaplan also raised the possibility that the collective nature of the confrontation could support a different type of charge.

“The collective use of eight sets of fists, if there was, you know, obviously this was an organized effort to confront this one individual,” Kaplan said. He said Georgia’s criminal street gang statute does not require a documented gang membership, only “some sort of a loose affiliation with three or more individuals” and a common goal to commit a crime.

“If they really wanted to get cued at the district attorney’s office, they could probably take this assemblage of folks and prosecute it as some sort of a collective effort,” Kaplan said.

Bond denial

The eight students were denied bond and are being held at a regional youth detention center. Both attorneys said they would have expected bond to be granted based solely on the video.

“From the standpoint of a typical felony case, I would expect in Dougherty County for these individuals charged with the aggravated assault and battery charges, I would have expected them to have received bond unless they already had prior histories that I’m unaware of,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan said juvenile court, which he said handled the bond decision, would have access to records he does not have, including any prior history for the students. He said he did not know of a situation “where I could see the juvenile court rubber stamping a denial of bond for all eight without additional information.”

Adams said he believes the aggravated assault charge is the basis for the bond denial.

“I think the reason they don’t have bond is because of that aggravated assault charge. Because that’s a felony. That’s what’s causing them to not have a bond,” Adams said. He said that charge “can only be set by a Superior Court judge” and that the students have a court appearance scheduled for next week.

“I would be extremely surprised if a bond is not granted,” Adams said. “Because, like I said, looking at the video, it does not rise, in my opinion, to the level of aggravated assault.”

Kaplan said he did not see this case rising to the level of the students being prosecuted as adults “unless there was something different.”

Hazing and race questions

Adams addressed questions about whether the incident may have involved hazing among football teammates.

“I don’t think it’s much more than that,” Adams said. “I think they took it to a level that they should not have taken it to. But still, it may have been some sort of hazing to some degree. I don’t really know.”

Adams said he does not see evidence of a racial motivation or hate crime in the video, noting the students are teammates.

“I think it’s easy on the face to say, okay, here’s a bunch of Black kids and here’s one white kid. But, you know, keep in mind that these are teammates,” Adams said. “I don’t see a racial issue. I don’t see the hate crime issue. Because again, like I said, these are teammates. And they’re getting ready to play, as I understand it, a football game next week.”

Attorneys’ broader concerns

Kaplan said the video did not show the level of violence he anticipated.

“I was concerned that I was going to see a level of savagery that was going to be surprising to me,” Kaplan said. “I’m kind of reassured that this is nothing more than — I do not condone the ganging up — and that bothers me and it worries me that one of these kids is going to get really seriously hurt.”

Kaplan, who said he grew up in Albany and attended Highland before it was demolished, said he still sees “kids acting like kids” who “may need better guidance.”

Kaplan also said that physical altercations among students can carry consequences beyond what participants intend.

“If that individual receives a serious bodily injury in the course of what y’all are doing, then you could be prosecuted for that result that was never intended,” he said. “You may have gone over there with the best of intentions of just having some little slap fight. But if the kid trips and falls during the course of that physical altercation and he hits his head on a brick and dies as a result of it, that could be a very serious case.”

Adams said the incident should serve as a lesson.

“This is a perfect example of why you cannot engage in this kind of activity,” Adams said. “You can’t impose your thinking, your desires on someone else, which is offensive to them, and could cause injury to them, and may be fun to you. It just doesn’t work that way.”

Adams added that he expects the district attorney’s office to “handle it accordingly.”

“I think it’s a learning experience. It’s a lesson to other kids not to get involved in this kind of activity,” Adams said. “But the other side of it is, as adults, we don’t need to overreact to it but respond in a way that’s appropriate.”

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