If you have been looking for the precise details of Mychal Bell’s plea agreement this piece by Sherrel Wheeler Stewart should answer all your questions.  

Jena Six’s Mychal Bell Accepts Plea Deal, Gets 18 Months in Juvenile Custody for Beating

Date: Tuesday, December 04, 2007
By: Sherrel Wheeler Stewart, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Mychal Bell, a former standout high school football player in Jena, Louisiana, was sentenced Monday to 18 months in juvenile custody for his role in the beating of a white classmate one year ago.

The sentence is part of a plea agreement accepted by LaSalle Parish Judge J.P. Mauffrey three days before Bell was set to go to trial in juvenile court for the fight with Justin Barker on Dec. 4, 2006. The case captured national attention because of the severity of the initial charges and the fact that whites who committed offenses in the town were handled differently, parents and activists said.

Under the plea, Bell:

· Admitted to second degree battery, which would be a felony punishable by up to five years in prison if he in adult.

· Was ordered to serve 18 months in the custody of the Office of Youth Development, receiving credit for time already served.

· Agreed to pay his pro rata share of restitution to the Barker family for medical costs not covered by insurance.

· Agreed to pay court costs.

· Agreed to testify truthfully in the cases of any of the five co-defendants who goes to trial.

Bell’s parents also agreed to continue paying the state child support until their son reaches the age of 18. He is 17 now.

Bell’s share of Barker’s medical bill is about $935, said Bill Furlow, a spokesman for LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters. The amount of court costs is yet to be determined, Furlow told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Bell is one of six youths charged in the case that touched off one of the largest civil rights protests in recent history. He and Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw, Robert Bailey Jr., and an unnamed juvenile were charged in the fight, which followed weeks of unrest in the rural Louisiana town of 3,000. Originally five of the six were charged with felonies in adult court.

The amount of their bonds ranged as high as $135,000, and the potential sentences on the felony charges for those being handled as adults could have ranged as high as 75 years, attorneys have said.

Bell was the first to be convicted as an adult in June, but an appeals court overturned that conviction, saying that the matter should have been handled in juvenile court because of Bell’s age at the time of the incident.

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters said in a prepared statement Monday that he hopes to wrap up the other cases early next year.

A trial date of Jan. 28 has been set for both Jones and Shaw, said Bill Furrow, a spokesman for Walters.

Alan Bean, head of Friends of Justice, a group that began working in January to bring attention to the case, said Bell’s agreement sets a pattern, but not a blueprint for the handling of the remaining cases.

“This shows that the D.A. is willing to consider plea agreements in the best interest of the people of Jena, the defendants and himself,” Bean told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Bell‘s team of lawyers, led by Louis Scott, were getting ready for trial and the opportunity to call witnesses to Bell‘s defense. In his earlier trial, a court-appointed lawyer did not call witnesses in defense of Bell.

His new lawyers say the plea was best for their client.

“We were prepared to go forward with the trial, but you have to do what’s best for the client,” said Carol Powell Lexing, one of Bell’s attorneys.

Attempts to reach Scott were unsuccessful.

Several activists, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, had said previously that Bell should be released based on the time he already has served. He was locked up on adult charges immediately following the incident last year. He remained in jail until late September after his conviction was overturned.

Days later, the judge ordered Bell to a juvenile facility, saying that by fighting on Dec. 4, he had violated the terms of probation for earlier unrelated offenses. He was given 18 months of juvenile time for those offenses. With the acceptance of the plea agreement, the time served will now run concurrently. Still, however, Bell could be in jail at least another year. He also will be given credit for time served on the sentence in connection with the Dec. 4 incident.

Bean said that there is an upside to the plea agreement. “At least now there is some certainty. Mychal Bell knows that there is a date where he can return to the free world,“ he said.
 
Walters said he would try to work out plea deals with the other teens charged in Barker’s beating. He said his decision to work out a deal was not influenced by the intense media coverage and civil rights demonstrations.

Barker spent several hours in the emergency room after the attack, but was discharged and attended a school event soon afterward.

Critics said prosecutors have treated blacks more harshly than whites in LaSalle Parish, pointing to an incident three months before the attack on Barker in which three white teens were accused of hanging nooses from a tree at the high school. The three were suspended from school but never criminally charged.

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Associated Press contributed to this report.