{"id":39943,"date":"2025-02-06T11:48:45","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T16:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/?p=39943"},"modified":"2025-02-06T11:48:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T16:48:45","slug":"white-massachusetts-teen-avoids-jail-time-in-attempted-drowning-of-black-peer-in-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/white-massachusetts-teen-avoids-jail-time-in-attempted-drowning-of-black-peer-in-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"White Massachusetts teen avoids jail time in attempted drowning of black peer in pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe Cape Cod teenager who pleaded guilty to the attempted drowning of a black peer in a pond while spewing a racial slur escaped jail time during his sentencing Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Chatham, Mass. resident John Sheeran, 15, will serve probation and around 700 hours of community service after he copped to attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon charges in December, his lawyer confirmed to The Post in an interview.<\/p>\n

He will also be required to attend an online educational class and write an apology letter to the victim. If he reoffends before Feb 4, 2028, he could be taken into custody.<\/p>\n

Sheeran, who is white, and another teen boy threw rocks at the victim before Sheeran, the victim and the third teen all went into a pond in July 2023, prosecutors said.
\nThe victim, who had a lifejacket on because he didn\u2019t know how to swim, was forced underwater by Sheeran, according to the district attorney\u2019s office.
\nHe also was accused of calling him the n-word as the third teen allegedly called the black boy \u201cGeorge Floyd\u201d because he couldn\u2019t breathe while laughing during the shocking incident, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Barnstable District Court Judge Sylvia Gomes insisted the sentence was a fair resolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot undo what happened, but hopefully this resolution will bring the community closure and comfort,\u201d she said, according to the Cape Cod Times.<\/p>\n

But Sheeran\u2019s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, slammed the case against his client, insisting the black teen wasn\u2019t a victim while singling out Cape Cod District Attorney Robert Galibois.<\/p>\n

He claimed the narrative against Sheeran was concocted by the victim who was playing the \u201crace card.\u201d He pointed out that his client and the victim were friends leading up to the episode at the pond.<\/p>\n

He also referred to Galibois as the \u201cpuppet master,\u201d accusing him of directing police to charge Sheeran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI question the justice system in this case significantly, but I\u2019m very pleased with the probation,\u201d Redding said.<\/p>\n

Galibois\u2019 office stood by its actions in a statement to The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate the Court eloquently and succinctly rejecting the defense attorney\u2019s inflammatory and headline-grabbing characterizations. We agree with the Court\u2019s observation that politics did not play a role in this case,\u201d the district attorney\u2019s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe further agree with the Court\u2019s announcement that this was not a matter of horse play but a criminal act. We also appreciate the Court applying the facts of this case to the charges at hand and rendering a fair disposition to all parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

The founder of Amplify POC Cape Cod, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating the racial wealth gap in the region, however, slammed the punishment leveled against the teen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis perpetrator is getting off easy because of his white skin and privilege,\u201d Tara Vargas Wallace told the Cape Cod Times. \u201cHe gets to go home. Meanwhile, the victim in this case is scarred for life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cape Cod teenager who pleaded guilty to the attempted drowning of a black peer in a pond while spewing a racial slur escaped jail time during his sentencing Wednesday. Chatham, Mass. resident John Sheeran, 15, will serve probation and around 700 hours of community service after he copped to attempted murder and assault with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[251,89],"class_list":["post-39943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wls-news","tag-251","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Image-1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39944,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39943\/revisions\/39944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}