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Teens charged with arranging boys' fight

Some call the police after seeing the brawl, which was taped and put on the Internet.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN AND CHRIS TISCH
Published November 18, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Police arrested two teens Friday evening on charges they orchestrated a fight between two young boys that received national attention after a video of the brawl was posted on the Web site MySpace.com.

Rodney Lee Sales, 18, faces felony charges of child abuse and battery. His cousin, Quatisha Denise Sales, 17, faces a charge of child abuse.

In the video, the youngsters pound each other with fists and grapple on the ground while a crowd stands around and eggs them on. People jerk the boys around, throw them at each other and, in profane language, urge them to fight.

Detective Joe Bross, who began investigating after watching a videotape of the fight, said some people who saw the video knew the participants and called police.

Police said the teenagers are related to the boys, but declined to saw how.

Bross said the parents of the boys were not present during the fight, which occurred on Nov. 4, and did not know it had taken place.

Bross said the onlookers he interviewed said "this is how they learn to fight and last on the street."

St. Petersburg lawyer Mark Hanks said family members of the two teens met with him Friday.

Hanks said the incident was "definitely not any kind of staged fight ..."

He said the boys in the video are 5 and 6.

Hanks said he thinks police acted too quickly in making the arrests, perhaps spurred by widespread publicity about the video.

"There was no pitting of one child against another," he said. "The part of the video I saw was two kids rolling around the ground and a lot of yelling in the background. I hope my clients aren't crucified in the court of public opinion. I hope the public keeps an open mind."

[Last modified November 18, 2006, 00:05:03]