Tampa judge reprimands defense attorney in Walker rape case
By Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
TAMPA — A judge gave a defense attorney a tongue-lashing Wednesday for filing a motion “at the 11th hour” in the Walker Middle School rape case.
But attorney Bryant Camareno said the motion needed to be filed.
He wants Hillsborough Circuit Judge Chet A. Tharpe to either hold separate trials for the two remaining defendants who have not taken plea deals or to have two separate juries deliberate in the same trial.
Camareno said he also wants the defendants’ written confessions limited.
Raymond Price-Murray, 15 and Diemante J. Roberts, 16, still face four counts of sexual battery in allegations that a 13-year-old student endured a two-month reign of terror at the hands of four members of his flag football team. He said he was raped with a broom and a hockey stick.
The others, Lee Louis Myers, 15 and Randall Moye, 15, have pleaded guilty to felony battery. One faces juvenile sanctions and one agreed to enter a pretrial intervention program. If he successfully completes it, his charges will be dropped.
The trial for the remaining two is scheduled for the week of Sept. 13.
“I am really upset,” Judge Tharpe said. “This should have been filed a long time ago. It makes me think that you’re dilatory.”
Camareno’s motion asks that a confession Roberts made not be used against his client, Price-Murray. The Roberts confession, Camareno says, portrays the events in the locker in a more incriminating light than Price-Murray’s does.
“We put the broomstick in his butt,” Roberts stated. “Guys on the team pulled his pants down and put the hockey stick up his butt again.”
Price-Murray said it was Roberts who made the comment about getting the victim. Teammates jumped on top of the boy, and Roberts used a hockey stick on him, Price-Murray said in his statement.
“We were just goofing off,” he wrote in parentheses. Price-Murray also said the victim may have thought the defendant tried to assault him because Price-Murray was holding the stick in his hand. But Price-Murray said he had taken the stick from another boy to hit Roberts as Roberts tried to put a stick in Price-Murrary’s rear end.
The judge said he will hear the motion as early the prosecution can respond to it, even if that means 7 tonight.
“For the record, the judge has every right to be upset,” Camareno said. “But the motion needed to be filed.”
Alexandra Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3354.
Then you definitely admit canceling certainly not doubt you asserted that?