Video shows a teacher slamming a student into lockers
By: Marty Kasper
Updated: October 15, 2012
ROCKFORD - Shocking video played in
court Monday shows former
The slams are violent, "they then go across the
hallway and [the 15-year-old student] is pushed up against the other lockers,"
said assistant
It looks like an attack, but defense lawyers began
their opening statement by saying the 15-year-old involved had been hostile
with other teachers over using his phone in school just minutes before
encountering Oetting.
"And screamed, 'give me back my mother
(expletive) phone,'" said lead defense lawyer Daniel Hoffman.
Hoffman says the then sophomore had interrupted a
class and tried to provoke a teacher who asked him to leave his room.
"And [the 15-year-old student] says, 'you want
to hit me, don't you,'" said Hoffman.
But it doesn't stop there. Hoffman says the sophomore was seen walking
the hallways making threats.
"'I want to beat someone's ass,' he [the
15-year-old student] says that, and he appears to be agitated," said
Hoffman.
It was a short while later that Oetting and the
sophomore met in the hallway.
Oetting, apparently trying to find out what the
15-year-old is doing, asks him to put his phone away. The sophomore refuses.
"'I'm not putting my (expletive) phone away,"
Hoffman says the 15-year-old told Oetting.
The two then began to scuffle and the prosecution
says it's an encounter that shouldn't have ended with the sophomore on the
ground.
"Mr. Oetting is actually putting his body
between the victim and where the victim is walking," said Wells.
Wells says the sophomore was trying to walk away, but
Oetting wouldn't let him.
"[The 15-year-old student] gets away from Mr. Oetting
and starts to go down the hallway, away from Oetting," said Wells. "And Mr. Oetting follows him."
Eventually slamming the 15-year-old to the ground
where he sustained a head injury.
"[The 15-year-old is actually in a seizure, where his
legs are twitching very violently," said Wells.
Oetting has pleaded not
guilty to the charges which include aggravated battery and reckless conduct.
