Updated — The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has nothing on the curious case of Jeremy Marks. This 18-year-old special education student has been sitting behind bars since May 10 for something witnesses allege and videotape appears to show he did not do. Marks happened upon an altercation between campus police officer Erin Robles and a 15-year-old student. Apparently, during the altercation at a bus stop — which included Robles shoving the 15-year-old's head so hard into a bus window that she broke it out of the frame — Marks was one of many spectators who watched and took photos on his phone. One of the spectators said, "Kick her ass" during the incident, for which police blame Marks, according to his mother.
Yes, there were spectators taunting the officer, but they do not appear to have included Marks. Marks, who does not appear to have been physically or verbally involved in the altercation, has been charged with obstructing an officer, resisting arrest, criminal threats and "attempted lynching." Initially the Los Angeles County District Attorney offered him seven years in prison and then another plea deal of 32 months.
Marks, 18, has been sitting in Peter Pitchess Detention Center, a tough adult jail, since May 10. Bail was set at $155,000, which his working-class parents can't pay to free their son for Christmas. His mother is a part-time clerk at a city swimming pool; his father is a lab tech.
To add insult to injury, Robles' story keeps changing even in the press, as the L.A. Weekly has documented and reported. She even admits to being scared and unable to remember who was involved in the altercation. Let's see: They would rather further ruin a young boy's life than admit wrongdoing. Marks touched no one during his attempted lynching. Marks' weapon is the camera on his cell phone. Officer Robles' own actions helped turn an exceedingly minor wrongdoing — a student smoking at a bus stop — into a state prison case. Just us prevails again.
Read more at L.A. Weekly. Watch student video of the altercation below (NSFW):