Delco bully suspects to spend at least another week behind bars

The seven Upper Darby teenagers arrested Monday in a videotaped bullying incident that made national headlines will remain in the Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center for at least another week, a judge ruled yesterday.

The boys, ages 13 to 17, have been charged with kidnapping, assault and related offenses in the Jan. 11 attack on 13-year-old Nadin Khoury. They are accused of dragging Khoury across the ground, hoisting him into a tree and hanging him by a 7-foot-high spiked fence post - and recording it on a cell-phone camera. Police say they also kicked and punched Khoury off camera.

Judge Mary Alice Brennan yesterday took the unusual step of removing the news media and other observers from yesterday's right-to-detain hearing, which under state law is an open court proceeding, according to the Delaware County District Attorney's Office.

The defendants attend Upper Darby High School's Opportunity Center. Brennan, a former Upper Darby district judge, has served as special counsel for the Upper Darby School District. She said she was denying reporters access to the hearing to protect sensitive information about the juveniles.

Public defender David DiPasqua said the seven teens must undergo a psychological evaluation and risk assessment while remaining in custody at the county detention center in Lima. They are due back in court Feb. 10.

Before the hearing, which was conducted by videoconference, a chubby 14-year-old defendant looked at the screen and asked: "If you see my mom, can you tell her I love her?"

The boy's attorney, Geoffrey Seay, said he hopes his client will be released to his "devastated" mother and grandmother next week.

"At this point, I've seen as much video as everybody else and all I see is blurs, so I can't say what, if anything, my client may have done," Seay said.

"Certainly, it's repulsive to all of us," he said of the video.

Outside the courthouse, the cousin of one of the 17-year-old defendants called him a "good kid" who had been hanging out with a "bad crowd." A relative of another defendant criticized Upper Darby police Superintendent Michael Chitwood's "bulldogish approach" to the situation. In announcing the arrests, Chitwood described the teens as "thugs" and a "wolf pack."

Khoury, an aspiring Marine, said Monday that he wasn't seriously hurt in the attack.

"I know they're going to do it again," he said, "but I want them to pay for what they did."