Is this justifiable?

If peeper suspect dies, 5 could face death penalty
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
John P. Coyne
Plain Dealer Reporter
North Royalton- Five adults and one juvenile who allegedly took part in the beating and sodomy of a man they found peeping into the bedroom window of a sleeping 5-year-old girl must now answer criminal charges.

The adults - one of whom is the girl's mother - could face charges that carry the death penalty if Mario Russo dies, police said. Russo, 44, remains unconscious on a ventilator at MetroHealth Medical Center, where officials described his condition as critical.


Police said apartment security cameras recorded Russo peering into the girl's window Saturday morning and the beating, and gave officers a minute-by-minute record of the crime.

"This is one of the tightest cases I've ever had," North Royalton Detective Jay Drake said. "Everything's on tape."

One woman, Athena Lemieux, 20, of Elyria, a part-time exotic dancer at Bugsy's Speakeasy on West 25th Street, faces rape and felonious assault charges because police say she inserted a foot-long tree branch into Russo's rectum.

Charged with felonious assault and complicity to commit rape were the 5-year-old's mother, Stacy Umstott, 28, of North Royalton, also an exotic dancer at Bugsy's; her boyfriend, Khalid Arafat, 34, of Cleveland; Nicholas Phipps, 21, of Cleveland; and Brandon Breeden, 19, of Elyria.

A sixth person, Breeden's 15-year-old girlfriend from Mentor, was also arrested and released to her aunt. She will face charges in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court but cannot receive the death penalty because of her age.

Russo lives in an apartment building next to Umstott's.

Parma Municipal Judge Mary Dunning set the bonds for each of the adults at $3 million.

This is what Drake said happened:

Umstott was having a party in her ground-floor suite in the Bunker Ridge Apartments on Ridge Road after arriving home with the others at 3:30 a.m. At 4:10 a.m., the video shows that Russo walked up to the apartment window of the room where Umstott's 5-year-old daughter was sleeping and looked in.

At 4:21 a.m., Phipps went to his car to get a CD and noticed Russo standing in the bushes next to the bedroom window facing Ridge Road. Russo was masturbating with his pants partially down.

Phipps went to get the others and all six came out of the apartment, pulled Russo out of the bushes and began punching, stomping and kicking him. They left him on the ground, but returned to continue their assault.

The video shows Russo lay unconscious on the ground for an hour and nine minutes after the initial beating. His assailants came out to see if he was still alive and apparently even planned to dump his body on Cleveland's West Side if he died, Drake said.

They spotted one of the four video cameras at one point and ripped it from above the entrance to the building, Drake said. Police found the camera inside the apartment.

At 5:31 a.m., police received a call from a resident of the apartment building who said she heard a man moaning.

Sgt. John Elek, the first policeman to arrive on the scene, said he had never seen anyone beaten so violently. Russo was lying in a large pool of blood. Drake said his assailants had kicked him so hard his dentures had flown out of his mouth. He was flown by helicopter to Metro Health.

All of the de fendants ex cept Arafat and the juvenile waived their preliminary hearings and remain in County Jail. Arafat remains in North Royalton City Jail and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.

Drake said the suspects admitted drinking and using drugs during the evening. Marijuana was found in the apartment.

Police said one of the suspects rationalized their behavior saying, "It was not the smartest thing we've done . . . But he deserved it."

Is this justifiable?


Depends if you mean were they justified in beating and sodomising him, or if you mean their facing the death penalty if he dies.

As far as the first goes, I wouldn't agree that what they did was right, although they themselves seem to have justified it by saying he deserved it, although that is clearly open to debate.

As far as the second goes, I suppose you can justify it by saying it's the law in their State where murder can carry the death penalty.

Any reason you chose this particular story, do you have your own view on it.

Indeed this is another one i did on a different board.

It ran for quite a while, and i even contacted the reporter in America who wrote the article and the follow up one.
I think overall it was decided that it was not justified to attack this man in such a fashion.
I will copy and paste the thread a little at a time for you to read if you want, or try and link it? There was more to this story, as i suspected, and it made an interesting debate.

Not a nice story at all.

My take on it is this. The guy was for sure perving over this child, but he never did anything to her, never touched her, and she didn't even know he was there, she was unharmed and untouched by it all. Doesn't make it right, but it was much less right what the others did to him, and I think they should be punished for what they inflicted on that guy - whether he lives or dies.

That 'taking the law into your own hands' went much too far.

The guy was for sure perving over this child,
Yes that was the thinking of most people, and the natural scenario that most would see, but i had to persue this story - and you will see later on what transpired.

I'll leave it a while, in case anyone else has any comments,then i will post the link.:wink2:

It's not right to abuse another human being in that way. If the man committed an offence against the child then he should have been dealt with by the justice system. They didn't even give this a chance.

It's a grim story isn't it.

No, the beating/rape were not justified. The attackers should have let the authorities deal with the man, not taken the law into their own hands.

I agree with all the responses so far - what that guy did was sick but imo wht those group of people did was worse - there is nothing worse than vendictive, cruel gang/mob mentality and they must have done awful awful damage to leave the guy in the state he was in.

I'm generally in favour of the right to protect one's household and family. However, this has gone much too far.

Poor kid - was the little girl kept out until 03:30am with her mother while she was drinking and taking drugs or was she at home alone or with a babysitter.

Who was looking after the kid while the mother was soddomising the guy with a branch?

Is there any proof the guy was masturbating? Maybe he was concerned for the child and checking in to see if she was ok (yes, stupid I know - but you never know!)

Either way I think they went way too far and should be punished accordinly (although I am anti-death penalty)

I guess that maybe the guy was not masturbating, but taking a leak - I don't know, but I will be very interested to hear the outcome of all this!

I have decided not to post the link, for one it is several pages of posts, (200 ish) which is a lot to wade through, and secondly the forum has no moderators, and no one can ever get banned no matter what they say or do.Although this thread is one of the milder ones,(there have been occasions of people flying out to fight each other lol) there is stuff in there not suitable for this board.

So selective cut and paste it is.

Quote:Is this justifiable?


My question.

I left you all to decide to what i was referring.
Even with the topic title it is possible for example that i may be a tree fetishist, who objected to my poor inanimate friends having their limbs abused in such a way?


My point is that to an extent we all assume/speculate even subconsciously.

*No one threw back at me "Is what justifiable?"*

Anyways i for one would like to keep tabs on this case, but i would think the only way to do that would be through local newspapers, radio, and tv news.
Pity no one is local enough to keep an eye on it for us?

*Note SF did just that in his first post.*
________________________________________


Kiko wrote:


Here we go, a link to the original story and the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

If peeper suspect dies, 5 could face death penalty
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/109282650775790.xml?ncounty_cuyahoga (http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/109282650775790.xml?ncounty_cuyahoga)

I've already done a search of the majors for a followup, but it doesn't appear they've had one since then.

http://www.cleveland.com/ (http://www.cleveland.com/) >>If anyone wants to keep an eye out for more.


Thanks for the links Kiko
I e-mailed the reporter John and asked him if there are to be any follow ups, not sure if he will reply.
_________________________________________

Well John has very kindly replied to my e-mail, and it appears that his colleague Regina Betts is bringing out a follow up article, which is scheduled for today,(wednesday.)
I'm sure John will not object to me printing his reply, and he will almost certainly be reading this thread. http://www.cybersoapbox.com/csb/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif

Glad to hear from you. How are things in the UK?
Regina Brett, one of our columnists, wrote a story for this morning with the
headline, "Beating victim recalls nothing." It's on the www.cleveland.com (http://www.cleveland.com/)
website. She is writing another column for Wednesday. The story and column say
that police are backing away from their statements last week when they said,
"Everything is on the tape." It turns out that whatever Mario Russo was doing
at the window was hidden by bushes, so its not on the tape. Also, Russo
received a head injury in an accident several years ago and now has seizures.
So, one possibility is that he was having a seizure when he was standing outside
the window.
The police are having the tape enhanced to determine if they can get a clearer
view of what happened.

What Internet forum is this debate on?.
_______________________________________

*Sorry have to make two posts - apparently 1,000 words per post is the maximum permitted - why is that Haydon?*



Maybe your e-mail helped get us this update, Secrets:


Quote:Beating victim recalls nothing
Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Regina Brett
Plain Dealer Reporter

Mario Russo's girlfriend says he remembers nothing.

He doesn't know who broke his nose.

He doesn't know who fractured his jaw.

He doesn't know who crushed his trachea.

He doesn't know that the people charged with beating him told police he was a Peeping Tom they caught masturbating while peering in the window of a sleeping child.

Last week, the North Royalton police told the media that a security camera at the Bunker Ridge apartments captured the attack on Aug. 14.

"Everything's on tape," Detective Jay Drake told reporters.

Police now say the video captured the attack on Russo but does not show him masturbating outside the window. It shows Russo standing outside the brick Bunker Ridge apartment building about 50 feet from the one he lives in, looking at a window, then stepping behind a giant bush.

"I can't see him doing anything," Drake said on Monday.

Detective Dave Loeding, public-information officer for North Royalton, also said the video does not show what the suspects alleged.

"You can see him go to the window for an extended period of time, which is abnormal, but it does not show what these people are saying," Loeding said. "Let's keep in mind, this idea of masturbation and all that comes from the assailants themselves."

On Monday, a Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted five adults in the attack. The following face charges of attempted murder, rape and felonious assault: Khalid Arafat, 34, of Cleveland; Stacy Umstott, 28, of North Royalton; Nicholas Phipps, 21, of Cleveland; Athena Lemieux, 20, of Elyria; and Brandon Breeden, 19, of Elyria. Authorities said they are considering charges against a 15-year-old Mentor girl who was with the five during the beating.

The police have no neutral parties to explain what Russo was doing in the parking lot at 4 a.m.

Mario Russo can't tell them.

But his girlfriend, Jennifer Lewis, believes she has the answer.

Russo suffers from a head injury, she said. He has told different stories of how he got it: an industrial accident, a car accident. He has a metal plate in his head and takes a pharmacy of prescriptions just to function.

On Aug. 6, Russo had a seizure that landed him in the hospital for four days, hospital records show. North Royalton police had found him wandering along Ridge Road and called an ambulance.

That's what Russo does during a seizure, Lewis said. He wanders. He blanks out, forgets who he is, forgets where he is. He gets wobbly, gazes off, zones out and makes no sense.

Russo had a seizure Aug. 13, the day before the attack. He was treated and released from the Parma Community General Hospital emergency room, records show. Doctors checked his Depakote to prevent more seizures, but the drug has mixed results on him.

Russo, 44, came home from the hospital, watched TV and went to bed around 10 p.m. Here's Lewis' recollection of what happened the next morning:

The sound of the Metro Life Flight helicopter woke her just before 6 a.m. She looked outside. Police cars filled the parking lot. An officer saw her and waved for her to come down.

Where's Mario? she wondered. He usually woke at 4 a.m. to put on the coffee, buy a newspaper and start the crossword puzzle.

"There's been an assault," the officer told her. "Do you know anybody with dentures?"

"Oh my God, that's Mario," she said. He had been kicked so hard, his dentures had flown out.

"Do you have a picture of him?" the officer asked. "We can't identify his body."

His body?

Lewis said she went up to their third-floor apartment to get a photo of him. That's when she noticed his coffee mug filled, his deck shoes parked on the floor. Russo never went anywhere without those shoes. Not to do laundry, not to go have a smoke, not to visit a neighbor across the hall.

She figured he must have had one of his seizures and wandered off. She gave the officer the photo.

"This is him?" he asked. The picture didn't resemble the bloody mess paramedics put in the helicopter. Russo's blood soaked into the grass and dirt near a small cherry tree.

As police started the homicide investigation, Lewis called her dad. He calmed her down, then called the hospital to give them Russo's medical information.

Lewis' parents drove her to MetroHealth Medical Center. A police officer took them by surprise when he asked, "Did he make it?"

How bad was he?

Lewis said she didn't recognize the man in surgical ICU. She knew him by his blue eyes and long, dark eyelashes. She grew hysterical, crying. Her mom sobbed, and her dad whispered, "Oh, my God."

Russo's face was a mess of cuts and blood and stitches. His nose was crooked. His jaw hung near his cheek. His eyes were swollen shut. His face was as puffy as a Mylar balloon. He was on six IVs. A feeding tube. A ventilator.

Lewis cried over and over, "I love you, I love you."

The hardest part was going home without him, she said.

Russo remembers nothing, Lewis said. He wakes each day in MetroHealth unsure where he is. Then it comes back in stages: The place. The wounds. The beating. But no reason.

He's not angry, she said. He's confused.

They broke the news to him in stages, day by day. First they told him that a group of people beat him. Then they told him that someone sodomized him. The hardest truth is yet to come: The whole world thinks he's a Peeping Tom. But North Royalton police say Russo has never been charged with a sex crime.

Every time Russo asks, "Why? Why did they do this to me?" Lewis doesn't know how to answer.

"They're all in jail," she keeps telling him to comfort him.

He doesn't know that TV tabloids are swooping into town to cover the story. "Inside Edition" and Montel Williams want to do stories on vigilante justice, a detective said.

Russo got to go outdoors Monday for a few minutes, Lewis said. He had to wear a hat and glasses as disguise from the media and for his own safety. She said he is still wobbly and confused but might go into a rehab program in two weeks. He no longer needs the ventilator, the respirator, the oxygen.

The bruises are fading, she said. One eye is still black. His lip is still swollen. His face still looks crooked. The doctors reset his nose, wired his jaw and stitched his face and the insides of his mouth that tore under the shoes and fists.

"I'm just so sore," he told Lewis. "So sore."

He's not angry, she said. He just wants to go home. They want to get back to their quiet, slow life, to watch television, to hold hands.

Russo doesn't remember a thing.

Except how much he loves her.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga (http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1093347022303690.xml)

I couldn't stop thinking about this when I read it last night. The thing is that this guy could be innocent or guilty and nobody knows. He could have been doing a wee or even masturbating whilst having a seisure- unaware of where he was. I don't know why even a pervert would stand outside a childs window unless she was in full view close to the window? Also I close my childs curtains at night as Im sure most people do?

If he is innocent, then I find that they have done a huge injustice and would like to see every one of them locked up for a long time. People like that are scary and shouldn't be roaming the streets. That could be my son or husband being soddomised by that sick person who did it!

Even if somebody did something to my child, I couldn't soddomise them or leave them to die or contemplate dumping their body because Im sain. They must be criminals and sick people. Plus they were taking drugs and the guy could have been haluscinating but he has to carry on with the story (that he was masturbating) doesn't he or else they look even worse!

Charge with them attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder I think and if the guy dies then I think they should be charged with murder.

oh not nice.

Even if he was masturbating outside the window, by raping him with a stick reduces them to his level. They loose all sympathy.

If the guy was the type who was so compulsive a pervert as to masturbate by a kid's window in potential full view of the public... well then, I would have thought there would probably have been a previous police record on him, no?

Can't say I'm that inclined to take the testimony of a tree-branch-buggerer at face value. So I guess we'll never know whether he was indeed guilty of any crime. Pretty frightening case all round, though.

If the guy was the type who was so compulsive a pervert as to masturbate by a kid's window in potential full view of the public... well then, I would have thought there would probably have been a previous police record on him, no?

Can't say I'm that inclined to take the testimony of a tree-branch-buggerer at face value. So I guess we'll never know whether he was indeed guilty of any crime. Pretty frightening case all round, though.

I have to say, Busty I agree with you