Fight caught on video could lead to charges

BUXTON – Two teenagers involved in a fight that was captured on video and posted on the Internet could face charges, and so could some of the estimated 80 spectators who witnessed the brawl, authorities said.

Police are investigating the May 9 disturbance, which was captured on a video that was posted on YouTube more than a week ago. The video, shot at a wooded area in this southern Maine town, has since been taken down.

The two fighters could face disorderly conduct charges, said police. Officer Kim Emery said about 80 bystanders, most of them believed to be students at Bonny Eagle High School, could be charged with conspiracy. Both charges are misdemeanors.

“I thought it was pretty disturbing,” Emery said. “It’s promoting violence to other teens.”

After the 4-minute, 45-second video was posted on YouTube, a Web site that allows users to broadcast their own videos, it could still be viewed on Wednesday afternoon. The video was removed later in the day after a Portland Press Herald reporter sought comment from YouTube officials.

In the video, dozens of onlookers gathered to watch a fight off school grounds between two males identified as “Ricky” and “Joe” as a rock ‘n’ roll song plays in the background.

Some of the spectators can be seen egging the fighters on, and no one intervenes even after one of the boys appears to be kicked in the head.

Police said neither fighter was seriously injured. In an interview Wednesday with WGME-TV, one of the fighters played down the incident’s seriousness.

“Kids always fight,” said Joe Robinson, 18. “That’s what happens.”

But a member of the school board that oversees Bonny Eagle described the incident as “brutal.”

“It really just makes your stomach do flip-flops,” said Sandra Plummer, who also has a son who is a Bonny Eagle senior. “Hopefully in 2007 we’re somehow past that.”