Coach convicted of 2 counts in autistic player's beaning

It's a shame this guy will likely get just probation.

What a ****.

Some time to think about what he did








UNIONTOWN, Pa. A youth baseball coach in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, accused of offering an eight-year-old money to bean an autistic teammate so he couldn't play has been sentenced to one to six years in prison.

The judge sentenced 29-year-old Mark R. Downs Junior to consecutive six-to-36-month sentences for corruption of minors and criminal solicitation to commit simple assault.

Authorities say Downs offered to pay one of his players 25 dollars to hit a nine-year-old autistic teammate with a ball while warming up before a June 2005 playoff game.

A jury convicted Downs in September. He was acquitted on a more serious charge of criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault. And jurors deadlocked on a charge of reckless endangerment. The judge declared a mistrial on the endangerment charge, and prosecutors said they wouldn't retry him.

If true, the guy's a f*cking worthless piece of sh!t.

That said -- it's not beyond a 9-year-old boy to lie to get himself out of trouble, and it's not beyond a kid's parents to buy into the lie to keep their kid out of trouble. Just saying...




This is a little worrying to me, independent of the facts of the case:



I hope this perception wasn't a deciding factor in the jury's decision. Nerves/stagefright/general social ineptitude can be misinterpreted. Personally, I was accused of being aloof when I was younger on a somewhat regular basis. Really, I was just extremely shy in new situations.

Unfortunately, none of us were present to make our own determination. I am content to go with the tale as stated, unless or until contrary reports are made.