Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com

Reversing a ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals, the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Howell High student who was charged with felonious assault for videotaping a fight involving three fellow students.

In a 6-1 decision Friday, the state’s high court determined that since the student wasn’t armed at the time of the incident, he could not be charged with assault. The premeditated attack occurred in August of 2021 when the three students, who had befriended the victim, encouraged him to go to the Howell Skatepark, which is adjacent to the high school.

Once there, on a side of the skatepark building that couldn’t be seen by school buses, two of the students repeatedly punched and kicked the victim to the ground, inflicting bruises and what was later deemed to be a concussion. The victim also ended up with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The third student did not take part physically in the attack but videotaped it and later posted it on social media.

The three assailants were later charged as adults with assault with intent to commit bodily harm less than murder, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The student who videotaped the incident, who was 16 at the time, ultimately was charged with aiding and abetting the assault.

However, the state’s high court ruled that the student couldn't be charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm because it could not be proved that he was armed with a dangerous weapon before he was charged as an adult. The case was remanded back to the family division of circuit court, which will now have jurisdiction in the matter.

In the lone dissenting vote, Justice David Viviano stated that the court ruled on an issue that neither the Circuit Court, the Court of Appeals, nor the defendant himself argued: whether he was armed at the time of the assault, or whether the action of the other two assailants could be attributed to him based on the “aiding and abetting” argument. He also maintained that since the family court never had jurisdiction in the case (whereas the circuit court did) the case could not be remanded to the family court.