WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Baltimore judge denied an alleged victim’s request to drop criminal charges against two Baltimore Jewish brothers accused of beating the black teen.
"I been wanting to drop the charges all the time, I didn’t even want to go through [this]," Corey Ausby said on the stand Wednesday, according to the Baltimore Sun. "I feel like I was being pressured."
Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Pamela White rejected his plea.
"It was not your decision whether to bring charges against the defendants, it’s the state’s decision," she said.
Avi and Eliyahu Werdesheim, who are accused of beating Ausby in November 2010, have pleaded not guilty to the charges of second-degree assault, false imprisonment and carrying a deadly weapon They face up to 13 years in prison if convicted on all three counts.
At the time of the beating, Eliyahu Werdesheim, now 24, was a member of Shomrim, a Jewish neighborhood watch group. According to a police account, Eliyahu Werdesheim told the black teen, “You don’t belong around here,” while his brother, now 21, threw the boy to the ground, the Baltimore Sun reported.
When the prosecutor asked Ausby if he had lied about the beating, he replied, "No," and then said he "shouldn’t have called the police."
Ausby’s mother has filed a civil suit on his behalf against the Werdesheims and other members of Shomrim, the Sun reported.
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