JENA SIX TEEN CHARGED WITH ASSAULT

A member of Louisiana's Jena Six was charged Wednesday with one count of assault causing bodily injury for fighting with a fellow student at his high school in Texas, his mother told the Shreveport Times.


Bryant R. Purvis, who now lives in Dallas, was detained in the Carrollton, Texas, jail without bail pending a bond hearing Thursday morning.

Tina Jones, Purvis’ mother, said her son got into an altercation with another student at Hebron High School early Wednesday after being told the student had vandalized his car the night before.

According to Jones, Purvis, 19, didn't really fight the student, but rather “grabbed him by the collar and pushed his head on the table, talking to him,” she said.

“Bryant was very upset because he had a (basketball) game Tuesday night and, when (he went out to his car after) the game, someone made both tires on the passenger side flat,” Jones told the newspaper. “And (Wednesday) morning, someone told him who done it. That’s the reason the altercation happened. And a few days before that happened, he was driving my brother’s truck and someone stole the tires and busted the windows out of it.”


Purvis is one six black Jena High School students initially charged with attempted murder in connection with a Dec. 4, 2006, assault on white student Justin Barker at the LaSalle Parish school. Soon after Purvis’ arrest, Jones said she sent him to live with his uncle, Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Jason Hatcher, so he could stay out of trouble and out of the limelight.


Purvis' assault charge is a Class A misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of a $4,000 fine and a year in jail.