3 Victoria Lindsay Defendants Get Off Scot Free - Charges Dropped Against Gang Beating Defendants - Video

In a dramatic turn of events in the notorious Victoria Lindsay teen gang beating case, three of the eight teen age defendants in the case had all charges against them dropped and the prosecutor has no additional plans to charge them further.

Victoria Lindsay is a 16-year-old Lakeland, Florida, cheerleader that was ambushed by a gang of her classmates and severely beaten until she lost consciousness. Once she regained consciousness, she was beaten again.

Lindsay suffered a concussion, eye and ear damage along with bruises and lacerations and recurring nightmares about the beating. The startling part about the entire incident was that the defendants had filmed the beating so they could post it on YouTube and MySpace.

Polk County prosecutors dropped charges against the three defendants because of insufficient evidence against them. The three were Cara Murphy, 16, Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18.

When the eight defendants were initially arrested, the Polk County Sheriff’s office had stated that Ashley and Schumaker had stood guard outside the site of the attack, which was the home of Mary Nichols, the grandmother of defendant Mercades Nichols, who lived with her grandmother. Lindsay was living with Nichols and her grandmother at the time of the attack.

The Sheriff’s office had also initially stated that Murphy, the single female defendant whose charges were dropped, was the teen filming the beating. A female voice can be heard on the video from behind the scenes saying, “Ooh, yeah, baby. Ooh, yeah!” The Sheriff’s office had stated that voice was none other than defendant Cara Murphy. Watch the original video released by the Sheriff’s office.

The Sheriff had also stated early on that it was Murphy’s voice on the video letting the other girls know that the video was running out of film. “Seventeen seconds left,” the voice said while the beating continued. “Make it good.” Watch the second video released by the Sheriff’s office.

Neither the Sheriff’s office nor the prosecutor gave any indication why charges against the three were dropped other than lack of evidence. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd had even said early on in the case that one of the boys stuck his head in from outside and told the girls to quiet down because neighbors were able to hear the fight.

Why the evidence against Murphy and the two male defendants had evaporated remains a mystery, although Murphy's attorney has said that she has agreed to testify against the other defendants.

Usually prosecuting attorneys strike deals with a single defendant to testify against other defendants in exchange for a lesser charge or perhaps charges being dropped altogether.

It is unknown whether any deal was struck in this case although it certainly seems like one was.



Said Cara Murphy after the charges against her were dropped, "I guess I'm sorry for all that happened. I'm glad the charges got dropped though."

Murphy said that she never realized that the incident would turn into a national controversy. After she apologized to Victoria Lindsay, the victim, on the air but not in person, Murphy admitted she could have done more to stop the beating.

"During the time I definitely can say I felt scared for her. Once I saw the video, I realized this was a bad thing that happened."

Her attorney, Melodie Lopez, said, "My client and I are happy this is over. She should not have been charged. We feel vindicated that the charges have been dropped. I think it's wrong that all the kids there were charged as a group. Their involvement was not the same."

Let's see...Victoria suffers a concussion, permanent vision and hearing loss plus numerous bumps, scrapes and bruises, and Cara realized "this was a bad thing that happened?"


And what about remorse...was there any on Cara's part?

"I guess I'm sorry for all that happened," said Cara.

Oh yeah. That sounds like remorse alright. She guesses she's sorry. What she really meant to say was "My attorney made me say I'm sorry." What she's really sorry about is getting caught in the first place.

But she's "glad the charges got dropped though."

I'll bet she is! Cara goes from facing 15 years to life in prison one day to getting off scot free the next. Who wouldn't be glad?

Does it sound to you like she has learned anything from this ordeal? I'll bet next time she will cover her tracks better.

She must really like prison orange because she's not just wearing it in the slammer. She's even wearing it on the outside.

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High School Musical 3 Update: Zac, Vanessa, Ashley, Corbin, Lucas, Monique - 3 Videos

High School Musical 3: Senior Year is scheduled to hit the big screen in October, and filming is scheduled to be completed by the end of June. But some of us just cannot wait that long.

So we thought we would share a few tidbits about how filming is going, starting with a video about HSM3 behind the scenes.




At the MTV Movie Awards People magazine interviewed Zac Efron, who plays Troy Bolton in HSM3 and who also won an MTV movie award for best breakthrough performance for his role as the heartthrob, Link Larkin, in the movie, Hairspray.

Zac said it is smooth sailing on the HSM3 set. "When I got there everyone was calm, collected. They were working really hard," Efron said.

"It felt like the first two movies all over again. We just kind of can't go wrong with Kenny Ortega as our director and leader and our great cast and crew. We've got no squabbles to get through."

People asked Zac about the difference between making movies for the Disney Channel and for what will most likely be a blockbuster hit in movie theaters.

“Everything's been stepped up a few notches, all the dances, and I think the songs are pretty catchy this time around," said Zac.

"And it's our senior year, so we've got graduation and prom to look forward to. All fun things to have in a movie.”

As for the fairy tale romance between Zac and his co-star in HSM3, Vanessa Hudgens, who plays the brainy Gabriella Montez, it is still going strong. Zac and Vanessa were seen together at a Utah Jazz basketball game during a break from filming HSM3.

They certainly look cozy in the photo.

Vanessa is hitting the big time in stride, having been named as one of People Magazine's 100 most beautiful people of 2008. She showed up for the People photo shoot sans makeup.

Said Vanessa, “just recently I’ve learned to be okay with myself without wearing makeup…I started taking care of my skin and realized I didn’t need as much as I thought I did.”

Vanessa has also released her new album, Identified. Vanessa revealed, “This time I did what I wanted to do. I always had a knack for a more soulful, jazzy sound, so right off the bat I wanted to kind of let loose, and come up with a sound no one has heard from me before.”

HSM3 director is Kenny Ortega, who also directed both of the previous HSMs.

Ortega gives credit for his skills to his mentor, Gene Kelly. Said Ortega, “one great thing I learned from Gene Kelly was how to design choreography for the camera versus designing choreography for the stage. Gene used to say there should be a raison d’etre—a reason for being. What’s at the center of everything?”

Our second video is an interview by Access Hollywood with Vanessa Hudgens on the set of HMS3:



Disney has announced that there will be a High School Musical 4. Disney Channel Worldwide President Rich Ross told MTV, "We are writing High School Musical 4."

Ross said that Disney may not convince the complete original cast to return for a fourth go at HSM. "Are we going to have all the cast back? Probably not. Will we have some of them? I hope so."

Video #3 is an interview by Access Hollywood with Ashley Tisdale, who plays Sharpay, on the set of HMS3:



Zac Efron told The Rolling Stone in the summer of 2007 that he was not interested in any more HSM after the coming third installment. He prefered to move on to something new.

"If I had to hear the High School Musical songs anymore," he confessed, "I probably would have jumped off something very tall."

Although HSM may have countless sequels, Zac said he'd "hopefully not" do many more.

Currently, it appears that very few of the cast intend to return to East High for HSM4. “This is probably going to be the last one for a lot of the cast,” Zac told MTV. “It’s graduation, a lot of us have to move on.”

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Are NBA Title Games Rigged? - Video

Is the fix in at the NBA? Are some title games rigged?

Ex-NBA official, Tim Donaghy says they are. The question is, do we believe him? Or is he merely making noise in hopes of getting a lighter prison sentence on July 14th, when he is scheduled to be sentenced?

Donaghy is the NBA referee that was arrested last summer by the FBI for gambling and conspiring with gamblers on NBA games. He was fired by the NBA, he subsequently pleaded guilty to lesser charges and he has been cooperating with the government in order to obtain a lighter sentence.

According to a just released letter from his attorney to the court, Donaghy said NBA executives instructed certain referees “to manipulate games” to “boost ticket sales and television ratings.”

Donaghy gave specific examples but withheld team names. Donaghy mentioned Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals as one example. That game was between the LA Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. One flagrant foul that was never called stands out from the rest.

Laker Kobe Bryant clearly elbowed Sacramento's Mike Bibby, sending Bibby to the floor bleeding. Yet no foul was called, which caused King fans to claim the fix was in. Now Donaghy is saying the fans were right.

In that game, the Lakers shot a total of 40 free throws, but 27 were in the final quarter. The Lakers won that game 106-102 and went on to win game 7 and, eventually, the NBA championship title.

If a referee wants to favor one team over another, all he has to do is call a few extra fouls against the unfavored team and fewer fouls against the favored team. That gives his favored team extra free throws and extra points and the exact opposite for the unfavored team.

The following is a Sacramento area newscast regarding Donaghy's allegations.



That is what Donaghy claims happened in game six between the Lakers and the Kings in 2002, and the media and fans wanted the referees' heads after that game. Many Kings fans claimed then that the fix was in, and even today, six years later, some still cite that game as the smoking gun proving that officials manipulate key NBA games.

Donaghy also stated that it has happened in other games too. During the 2005 playoff series between the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets, Jeff Van Gundy, who was then the Rockets' coach, stated publicly that an NBA official had privately told him that his star 7' 6" center, Yao Ming, would be singled out by referees for illegal screens during the series. The NBA fined Van Gundy $100,000 for that remark.

But Donaghy's letter states “the referees followed the league instructions and Team 3 came back from behind to win the series. The N.B.A. benefited from this, because it prolonged the series, resulting in more tickets sold and more televised games.”

What is the NBA's reply to these accusations?

NBA Commissioner David Stern has refused to give any credibility to Donaghy's charges.

Stern dismissed Donaghy's allegations as baseless and said that the accusations come from the mouth of an admitted felon.

“He turned on basically all of his colleagues in an attempt to demonstrate that he is not the only one who engaged in criminal activity,” Stern said. “The US attorney’s office, the FBI have fully investigated it, and Mr. Donaghy is the only one who is guilty of a crime. And he’s going to be sentenced for that crime, regardless of these desperate attempts to implicate as many people as he can.”

And so far, he is correct. No other charges have yet been filed by the FBI, despite their investigations.

But when officiating decides the outcome of games instead of plays, you cannot fault the public for holding their noses from the stink. Claims of NBA game rigging have been floating around for years.

Donaghy's latest statements will certainly do nothing but stir up the pot on this controversy.

Victoria Lindsay Poll - 23% Favor Death Penalty for Teen Defendants

In a totally unscientific poll taken over the Internet, 23% of the respondents favored the death penalty for the defendants that allegedly beat up Victoria Lindsay for the now infamous reason of filming the beating to post it on MySpace and YouTube.

Another 22.5% of respondents favored a sentence from 15 years to life in prison, which means that 45.5% of the respondents felt that the offense was serious enough to warrant serious prison time and even death.

Victoria Lindsay is the 16-year-old cheerleader from Mulberry High School in Lakeland, Florida, who was lured to her then residence and allegedly beaten by six classmates and cheerleaders until she was unconscious. Then, once she regained consciousness, she was beaten some more.

Victoria suffered a concussion, vision and hearing loss, a chipped tooth and numerous abrasions from the incident.

The Polk County Sheriff's office released two videos of the beating. The first video was released not long after the beating incident, which occurred March 31, 2008. The second video was released about May 22nd.

20% of the poll's respondents favored a prison sentence of 5-15 years, while 23% favored 1-5 years behind bars.

9% thought that six months in jail was justified, and 3% favored probation.

Here are the exact results of the poll along with the wording used:
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Second Victoria Lindsay Beating Video
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