Leading off today: Poughkeepsie senior football player
Justin Richardson is being hailed as a hero for stepping in to save a woman who was allegedly being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver by a fellow teacher last week.
Richardson saw English teacher Ronette Ricketts, 40, allegedly attacking Cynthia Glozier with an 8-inch screwdriver on Dec. 15, according to reports. The 6-foot, 220-pound linebacker reacted and knocked Ricketts away.
“She was yelling, ‘Help me, help me, get her off of me,’” Richardson said. “The way she was screaming ‘help me,’ it was horrifying.”
Glozier, 54, is recovering from 16 stab wounds to the head, neck and back. She remains hospitalized, but in good condition, in the wake of the Dec. 15. incident, according to multiple reports.
Ricketts, who was Richardson's 10th-grade teacher, was charged with second-degree attempted murder, felony first-degree attempted assault, second-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported. She was released from jail last Friday after posting $100,000 bail.
“There’s no issue regarding what occurred, but there’s a substantial issue about my client’s mental state” when it happened, said Gary Greenwald, Ricketts’ attorney.
Football coach Ken Barger met with Richardson several hours after the stabbing. He described the player as “calm, cool and collected,” adding that Richardson still had a lot of adrenaline in his system at the time. “It was just sinking in.”
Two charged in Warsaw incident: Two students face criminal charges as police investigate an alleged assault against a Warsaw wrestler, WGRZ-TV in Buffalo reported.
The 15-year-old wrestler suffered a broken jaw Dec. 9 while in the team room. Warsaw police said the athlete cited several incidents of bullying over the last year.
Two students, ages 16 and 17, were charged Thursday with first-degree hazing and one was charged with tampering with physical evidence for allegedly deleting cell phone video of the incident, the TV station reported. They are scheduled to appear in Warsaw Town Court on Jan. 9. Police, who interviewed more than two dozen possible witnesses, are withholding their names until it is determined whether they will have youthful offender status.
According to the police report, the victim asked other students what he could do to stop bullying by the 16-year-old. Another wrestler suggested that the 15-year-old and another student engage in a punching contest. The two exchanged punches, then other team members allegedly joined in hitting the 15-year-old while at least one student recorded the incident with a cell phone camera.
District officials said they would review their current bullying policies and that a coach has been suspended from his coaching job for 30 days without pay. No charges have been filed against the coach. The coach was not identified in the statement, but the district had previously confirmed to local media that Rob Hirsch was put on temporary leave from coaching.
According to the police report, other incidents captured on camera phones in the past two to three years documented wrestlers assaulting each other. "In one video a known member of the wrestling team, who has since graduated, hits another student so hard as to knock that student out cold. It appears that this video was taken inside the school. In another video from Student C's phone you see multiple students tape up an unknown female who you can hear say "stop". The location and date of this video has yet to be determined," the report states.
