Charges dropped for Harmony High student arrested in campus beating, family says he wasn’t there
A 14-year-old who was among the 11 students arrested in connection with a widely shared beating outside Harmony High School will not be prosecuted, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
The teen, Matthew Mapes, spent 15 days in juvenile detention and was expelled, his family said, even though they insist he was not involved and was not at the scene.
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said Mapes was initially arrested for the October 16 incident based on witness statements.
The family disputes that account and says they have photos and cell phone tracker information they believe shows he was elsewhere at the time of the fight.
Body camera footage shared with News 6 shows deputies going to the school on October 21, days after the beating, clearing a classroom and confronting Mapes, who appears confused as deputies tell him they are investigating a fight.
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“I guess there was an incident that happened, I don’t know I wasn’t here,” a deputy says in the video.
“When?” Mapes responds.
“You tell me I wasn’t there,” the deputy says.
“What incident?” Mapes said, appearing to look confused.
Mapes is then handcuffed at school and led out, according to the body camera footage.
In a separate body camera video also provided to News 6, a deputy calls Mapes’ father from a patrol vehicle to tell him his son has been arrested.
“For what?” Richard Mapes replies.
“Him and 8 others were involved in an aggravated battery against one kid on the 16th,” the deputy says.
Richard Mapes pushes back later in that phone call.
“That’s out of character for him whatsoever, he’s never been in trouble like that whatsoever,” he says. “So I find that hard to believe.”
The sheriff’s office said a student identified Matthew Mapes as the second person to throw a punch. The family says the teen was not wearing the same outfit as the person seen in the video and maintains he was never in the area shown.
“I was thinking that everything would go away, I would go back to my life, be with my parents, stay at home,” Matthew Mapes said. “Because I had no right to be in that place, being arrested, going through that at all.”
His mother, Reing Mapes, said the arrest devastated the family.
“I had not raised my kid to do the bad thing,” she said. “If my kid do bad thing, that’s my fault. My fault and my husband’s fault. My son not do that. I believe my son didn’t do that. It broke our heart.”
After Mapes spent 15 days in juvenile detention, state attorney Monique Worrell’s office, which oversees the Ninth Judicial Circuit in Orange and Osceola counties, signed “nolle prosequi” paperwork dropping all charges.
That paperwork was signed on November 5, according to documents obtained by News 6.
A spokesperson for the the sheriff’s office said the arrest was based on witness statements, but the state attorney ultimately decided the evidence was not strong enough to continue the prosecution.
The Osceola Sheriff’s office added that the other 10 criminal cases against the Harmony High students are moving forward.
Richard Mapes said the situation should serve as a warning to other parents.
“If something happens on the campus or close to the campus like this did and someone points the finger, your child is going to be arrested and put in juvie,” he said.
“So I would suggest taking pictures of your kid every day,” he added, choking up. “Because — sorry — if you think it’s not gonna happen you know, you don’t think ‘Hey my son is going to get arrested today.’”
Osceola County Schools told News 6 it cannot share information about individual students because of privacy laws.
Matthew Mapes’ father said the district has not yet told him when, or if, his son can return to school. He is also seeking to have his son’s absences excused.