There was a silent moment–a long, silent moment–when Circuit Judge Terence Perkins asked Joseph Washington if anyone was forcing him to plead out to the charge that he’d made written threats to kill his dean at Matanzas High School. It’s usually a straight-forward question. Washington didn’t answer. His somewhat impatient attorney, Spencer O’Neal, had to intervene and explain to him.
“Outside of the circumstances of this case, is there anybody that’s forcing you to enter this plea,” O’Neal told him, like somebody threatening him of forcing him. Only then, Washington–who never took down the song from Soundcloud and spoke of his surprise in a video of having even faced arrest over it–said no. (April 9 update: the song was taken down.)
Washington, 18, was arrested in January after Matanzas High School faculty got word of the song, which he calls “Racial Profiling,” and in which Washington sings lyrics that explicitly tell Tom Wooleyhan, the Matanzas dean who is named in the song, that “You should be afraid of me cause I’ll come and take your life / Smoke ya with this Uzi like…” The lyrics also extend the threats to Wooleyhan’s family. Washington wrote and published the song after Wooleyhan suspended him for a few days over a dress code violation that Washington had compounded by insulting Wooleyhan to his face.
After his arrest on a second-degree felony charge of written threats to kill, his attorney made clear that the case would be fought on First Amendment grounds of free expression, and let the court know, as he did again today, that “nobody wants to litigate the free speech issue.” It didn’t get anywhere near that far. The prosecution filed its charge only in mid-March. Soon afterward, prosecution and defense had a pre-trial diversion agreement and a plea from Washington.
This afternoon, Washington pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony charge of making written threats to kill. The plea deal is generous. But getting to its term in 18 months will be unusually difficult and costly.
Washington will not serve any jail or prison time. According to the pre-trial intervention agreement, he’ll be on probation for the next 18 months. He’ll have to continue wearing an ankle monitor and pay for it–a previously contentious issue that almost derailed the agreement today–and stay away from the Matanzas campus, Wooleyhan and his family (he does not live in the county). As with any probation terms, he must abstain from all intoxicants and submit to random urinalysis. He must also write Wooleyhan an apology letter and obtain a GED. He must also pay some fines and court costs.
If Washington abides to all the terms of the contract for the next 18 months, the charge will be dropped. If he violates the terms, he faces the possibility of prison.
Perkins, who termed himself “surprised” by the leniency of the agreement, but did not object, went through the terms of probation with Washington like a teacher with his student, asking Washington to explain to him what the terms were rather than the other way around.
“So if you do everything that you’re required to do within that 18 month period, what happens to the charge?” Perkins asked him.
“It goes away,” Washington said.
“And if you don’t?” Washington, who spoke in a tone nowhere near as audible or assertive as in his song or video, said he could face up to five years in prison.
But the original agreement did not include him wearing a GPS monitor, and it bothered O’Neal when the matter came up.
“The only thing I want is a GPS,” the judge said.
“Judge when Mr. Lewis Mr. O’Neal and I were discussing the case, the issue of the GPS never came up,” Assistant State Attorney Jaime Telfer said, referring to her colleague, Jason Lewis, the managing attorney.
“I’m okay. I’ll accept a PTI. I was a little surprised, but I’m okay with that,” Perkins said. “I’m okay with a PTI. I just I think that I just needed a GPS. I need something that will verify what Mr. Washington will be telling us, which is –whatever this is, whether he was writing a song or this was a threat or whatever this was, that he’s past that, this isn’t a threat, that we can verify independently he’s not on the school grounds or he’s not being a potential issue with regard to the victim.”
“I understand what you’re saying, Your Honor, this is not what was negotiated,” O’Neal said. “It’s not what was asked for by the victim. As we discussed at the last hearing, the GPS monitor almost has nothing to do with this case except keep him away from the school. And he’s not going back to school. Everybody there knows who he is. If he was going around the school he’d be spotted within a mile. He hasn’t gone back to this day, he has no intention of going back. It’s not within his best interest to go back anyways.”
“I want nothing to do with that school at all,” Washington jumped him, his crispest statement at the hearing.
“It’s a financial burden,” O’Neal continued. The monitor costs $3.10 a day, all of it, plus maintenance, having to be paid by its wearer. That’s $95 a month, and what will amount to $1,700 for the duration of Washington’s probation–a heavy burden for a family with few means, and an unusual added punishment after he’s been sentenced. “It’s a physical burden. It’s setting him up to have a possible violation for something that, if you wanted to wear it for nine months of a piece, that’s a long time to have an ankle monitor on yourself. It’s a long time.”
“Agreed,” the judge said. But he wasn’t budging.
“He’s got no criminal history. He’s a high school student,” O’Neal said, reminding the court that Washington had abided by all his pre-trial release terms so far. “I don’t know that this is appropriate.”
Then came the judge’s interpretation of the song and the incident. “Okay, well, I read this as a threat,” Perkins said. “And I read it as a threat not just to the school, not just to the individual, but to his family. And I want some verification that Mr. Washington is complying with the letter and the spirit of the pre-trial intervention contract. I’m not second-guessing the pre-trial intervention contract. It’s not what I would have selected. But I’m not second guessing that. I’m prepared to accept a pre-trial intervention contract. But I want verification. I don’t know how to get it other than in the way I’m suggesting, which is a GPS. I understand there is a financial price to be paid for that. There is. I don’t know that that’s something that you can’t ask to change at a later time. You can ask to change any element at a later time. But at this point in time, I want some verification.”
O’Neal asked to confer with his client. They retreated to a room just outside the courtroom and returned a few minutes later. Washington had conceded, and the formal part of the plea and sentence followed.
Neither has Soundcloud taken down the song, nor does the pre-trial intervention agreement require Washington to take it down, which could be an implicit recognition of the case’s thornier First Amendment angles. It isn’t clear if Washington will appeal on those grounds. Despite his plea, he retains the right to appeal the sentence.
Steve says
Good luck to you. Hope you get to move on with your life after the 18 month period is over.
Weldon B. Ryan says
There is two justice systems! The law differs for the affluent and the politically connected written with disappearing ink while the poor and unconnected has it rubber stamped. This kid did nothing wrong!
A Concerned Observer says
“This kid did nothing wrong?” SERIOUSLY? It seems that this callous, non-repetitive perpetrator has no place in society. His attitude exhibited in this case leaves me with no doubt that this will not be his last brush with our legal system. I fully expect that he will escalate this antisocial behavior until he commits a serious enough crime to garner the attention a legal system that will punish him with an incarnation long and uncomfortable enough to get his attention. We have laws and they apply to him. They exist to protect citizens. The only result I see coming out of this case is that it will set a very dangerous precedent for similar minded young people (and their attorneys) who will also see “nothing wrong” with threatening to murder someone.
Give me a break! says
Basically they’re setting him up to fail. That’s a huge financial burden. To pay for the devise plus pay for his probation. If that’s not enough they’re making him get a GED which again he has to pay for. So how’s he going to pay for all that. At least give the kid a fighting chance!!
I sincerely hope this young man can make it through the next 18 months!!
Lnzch says
Just threatened to kill a family
And you call that nothing?
Agkistrodon says
The left has told us for the last few years, that although you indeed have freedom of speech, that speech has consequences, that apply to this young man as well. I prefer Freedom of Speech as it was intended in the US Constitution, but the left wants to put conditions on things, until it affects them. Enjoy your new way of interpreting things, just don’t speak unapproved speech.
Gooses says
Feel free to solidify your justice inequality argument by producing a similar judgement where a white boy threatened to kill a school leader and their family with an Uzi and publicized it for the world to hear and is given more than the minimal opportunity to have all forgiven in just 18 months. Show your work.
Willy Boy says
Another Plea Agreement “slap on the wrist”, or the ankle as it were.
metoo says
He’s an adult and should be treated as on. Instead he’s treated like a little kid who went astray.
Erobot says
Whatever happened to “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words can never hurt me” — additionally whatever happened to constitutionally protected free speech. IOW mouthing off okay; physicality not okay.
BTW How did the teachers’ union aka faculty thought police find out about a kid’s foolishness on the internet. He didn’t contact the alleged victim or anyone else directly.
Weldon Ryan says
Our national anthem praises violence and the killing of slaves. White America don’t see and will never see how offensive and threatening these lyrics are. This kid wrote a rap song about his treatment of garassment by the “School to Prison pipeline” and recorded it to upload to a music site which exists for artists. Great material as he saw it. Chaneled his anger as any artist would. With no intent to do harm whatsoever, his art then was used to prosecute him. This kids rights have been violated. Stuck with bad council and the fear of imprisonment he accepts a plea.
“And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Edward L Stark says
What is wrong with people? Y’all want this young man to go to prison for a stupid (c)rap song? 18 months of probation is about right and fair. It gives him a sense of consequence of doing stupid shit without ruining his future. I know a lot of you don’t care whether or not he has a future and willing to toss him in prison for life for something silly but COME ON MAN!
Doodles says
So, the Flaglerlive Aaron Thayer article, man with a gun comes down to Florida to kill his wife gets 1 comment and a misguided eighteen year-old in this article is being deemed the worst human imaginable in the comments section. Such fake outrage by such plausible deniability, warped brain individuals. Attention white people in the USA. You have lost any and all decent credibility you thought you had to point fingers at anyone! However, I think you know that, thus the reason for the quick constant deflection about what’s going on in your own backyard. (Dylann Roof)
Flagler Expatriate says
Matanzas High is the one of the worst schools I’ve ever had the misfortune of dealing with. My favorite thing was the forced fundraiser/extracurricular Pirate Run during the peak of the pandemic. I’ve lived in a lot of different places and couldn’t believe it when my child told me participation was mandatory. The parents were expected to participate as well. If paying exorbitant property taxes weren’t enough they expect the parents to take time off from working long, stressful hours to come catch Covid. What a joke!
On top of this Matanzas test scores and college acceptance rates are abysmal. Maybe school staff should focus on teaching kids the skills they need to excel instead of worrying about a frustrated kid’s rap song.