A Long Island mother, Jennifer Nelson, was recently acquitted of attempted murder and assault charges after taking action against her son’s bullies, reports Law & Crime.
Nelson’s trial, starting in September, ended with her acquittal on Tuesday. However, she got convicted for fleeing an accident scene, after running over a 15-year-old boy twice, which resulted in serious injuries to the teen.
Nelson faced accusations of confronting bullies at William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach with a bat and knife. Suffolk DA Raymond A. Tierney criticized Nelson for taking matters into her own hands.
“Citizens cannot take the law into their own hands, and should instead work with law enforcement and my office to seek justice in every case,”
Tierney told the outlet when describing the second-degree attempted murder charge.
Nelson suspected that the 15-year-old was involved in bullying her son and a part of the group that stole his sneakers and AirPods. Charges related to the robbery were only filed against two other teenagers.
According to the DA’s office, Nelson went to the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot, to allegedly confront them.
“Once [Nelson arrived] in the parking lot, she threatened a group of students while brandishing a knife and a small bat. During this incident, the victim left the parking lot and walked across the street to the parking lot of Manhattan Bagel,”
they added. When the 15-year-old walked away, Nelson tailed him with her vehicle
“at a high rate of speed, and drove directly at the victim who was standing in the parking lot,”
running over him twice, prosecutors stated.
Nelson traded in her leased Honda SUV on the same day as the incident, despite the lease not having expired, as an effort to hide the vehicle used in the offense, prosecutors alleged. Nelson told Newsday that she is relieved by the
“not guilty”
verdict.
“I don’t know. I’m just happy with the outcome,”
she said.
“This has been a lot, you know, on me, my son, just everybody involved, it’s been a lot,” she added.
#Clique, what are your thoughts?
