MILAM CO. DISTRICT ATTORNEY: ‘JUSTICE WAS SERVED’ IN PLEA DEAL WITH CALDWELL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

  

Milam County District Attorney Bill Torrey is defending the plea deals reached Tuesday with three of the four Caldwell High School students accused of stripping another student on a school bus.

Torrey released a statement Wednesday saying he offered the pleas that were accepted, adding “these are young women, with no prior criminal records, and impressive academic and extracurricular achievements.”  He said, “I believe all involved feel that justice was served by Judge [Steve] Young’s acceptance of these pleas.”

18-year-old Katherine Hart and 17-year-olds Marina Brinkman and Kadie Hartman pleaded guilty Tuesday to Unlawful Restraint, a Class A misdemeanor.  They, along with 17-year-old Sophie Goodman, were indicted by the Milam County Grand Jury in November for Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity – Unlawful Restraint, a third degree felony.  Goodman’s case remains unresolved.

Warrants filed for the arrest of the students accuse them of holding a 14-year-old student down on the bus and taking off her clothes as they came back to Caldwell after a volleyball match.  The four were arrested in October by Milam County authorities on charges of Indecency with a Child by Exposure.

According to Torrey, the 14-year-old victim and her mother were present in the courtroom, agreed with the resolution of the cases and declined to speak.  He also maintained that despite the original charge, the indictments returned by the grand jury after considering all evidence “were never sexual in nature.”