The intersection near Scarlett Middle School where police say a high school student assaulted a middle-schooler.
John Counts | AnnArbor.com
The 16-year-old Huron High School student accused of picking out a Scarlett Middle School student at random and punching him in the face requested a court-appointed attorney at a hearing Friday.
The boy stood before Referee Gail Altenburg at a lectern in the Washtenaw County Court dressed in a tuxedo and answered loudly and clearly in the affirmative when asked by Altenburg if he had received the petition for the misdemeanor assault and battery charge.
"Yes, ma'am," he said. "I did."
The boy's grandmother, who is his legal guardian, and his father accompanied him in the courtroom.
The boy was asked if wanted the court to appoint an attorney and he said that he did. Had he not, the boy would have had the opportunity to admit or deny responsibility in the case. Altenburg set a pretrial date of May 6 at 10 a.m.
The boy is accused of punching a 14-year-old Scarlett Middle School student, breaking out his teeth and knocking him unconscious, at the corner of Lorraine and LaSalle streets in Ann Arbor on Dec. 12.
Police say the 16-year-old and a 15-year-old Huron student not charged in the incident called the 14-year-old over to them on the crowded sidewalks as students were let out of school for the day. The two older boys asked the younger boy if he wanted to hang out, according to police. Before the boy could answer, the 16-year-old punched the younger boy in the face, police said. The 14-year-old didn't know the boy and police believe he was picked at random. The 15-year-old taped the punch with his cell phone's camera, according to the police report. A petition, the equivalent of a warrant, was signed March 8 for a charge of aggravated assault, a misdemeanor punishable by one year of incarceration or a $1,000 fine.
AnnArbor.com does not name juveniles involved in criminal cases unless they're tried as adults.
John Counts covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at johncounts@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.