Near-Fight Preceded Video Beating

BARTOW | About a month before her infamous videotaped beating, a former Mulberry High School cheerleader escaped a tense confrontation with a different group of angry girls who wanted to fight her, she said in a deposition.

A two-volume transcript recently filed in court contains this episode in its more than 300 pages, and it sheds more light on some possible motives and bad-blood in a case that has attracted national media attention.

Last month, defense lawyers conducted an in-depth deposition with 17-year-old Victoria Lindsay, who was beaten at a house in Highland City and whose attack was videotaped.

Originally, eight teenagers were accused of participating in Lindsay's beating on March 30 and threatening to post videos of it on YouTube and MySpace.

In June, charges were dropped against three co-defendants because of insufficient evidence. Trial dates have not yet been set for the remaining five teenage girls, who still face charges of battery and kidnapping.

A status hearing is scheduled for today in their cases.

DIFFERENT GROUP

Lindsay spoke in her deposition about how a fight almost erupted between her and a different group of girls at a bonfire party about a month before the videotaped beating took place.

In that earlier altercation, Lindsay said a girl at the bonfire was upset that her boyfriend wanted to date Lindsay, according to the deposition, and the girl called members of her softball team to help confront Lindsay.

Lindsay said she locked herself in her friend's car. She estimated about 30 people surrounded the car and were trying to break inside.

"So she got all her softball friends up there and wanted to basically fight me, and I locked myself in the car," she said, according to a transcript. "I didn't want to deal with violence, and I called the cops."

She left and was later told people at the party got arrested for underage drinking.

Brittany Mayes, 17, who faces charges in the videotaped beating, was upset about people getting arrested at the party, Lindsay said in her deposition.

THREATS BEGAN

Lindsay said Mayes, along with April Cooper, 15, another defendant, called her to complain.

"She was just saying that I was messed up and she was gonna whoop my butt for it," Lindsay said.

Mayes later threatened via MySpace postings that she and Cooper "were gonna meet up" with her, Lindsay said.

"And I said that my friend had brass knuckles and that if she was gonna jump me, that would be my defense," Lindsay said, according to the deposition.

ONCE A CLOSE FRIENDSHIP

Lindsay spoke about how her close friendship with Mercades Nichols, 17, who is also charged in the case, began to deteriorate. She said she refused to help Nichols break up a relationship between Nichols' ex-boyfriend and a girl he was dating.

"It kind of went downhill from there," Lindsay said.

Nichols was jealous, she said, because Lindsay had more friends than Nichols did. Before the beating, Lindsay also recalled how the girls were yelling at her about how many "guy friends" she has.

Lindsay said there was more of the March 30 beating that was filmed but must have been destroyed later.

ARREST RECORD

Defense lawyers grilled Lindsay about her arrest record. Juvenile arrest records are confidential. But she provided details of her arrests in the deposition.

Lindsay said she has been arrested three times for battery - twice against her stepmother and once against her sister. She was placed in a diversion program after the first incident involving her stepmother, according to the deposition, and received probation after the second incident. The battery charge regarding her sister was dropped.

Lindsay she also was arrested for theft after allegedly stealing makeup from a Wal-Mart in Plant City, and that case was still pending at the time of the deposition.

She was recently charged with identification fraud and accused of trying to go to Korea to see an ex-boyfriend, according to the deposition, and that case was also pending.

[ Jason Geary can be reached at jason.geary@theledger.com or 863-802-7536. ]