Teens charged in Sciota baseball bat attack
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Authorities charged a woman and two teens with attacking a man with a baseball bat after luring him to a Hamilton Township home through a Facebook encounter.
Ava Bodogh, 18, of Stroudsburg, Bruce Torres, 17, of Stroudsburg and Kyle Getz, 15, of Sciota face charges of aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, stemming from an alleged incident that occurred in a Sciota home on Nov. 2.
The Pocono Record does not ordinarily publish the names of minors charged in crimes, but has in this case since the teens were charged as adults.
According to a criminal complaint, Bodogh met the victim, a 23-year-old man from Phillipsburg, N.J. through Facebook. She told him she was bored and wanted to hang out. Bodogh invited him to a Sciota home that turned out to be Getz’s residence. The victim arrived around noon and the two talked outside before entering the home.
Once inside, the victim told police he walked up a set of stairs and sat in a kitchen. Torres and Getz, he said, came running into the room. Getz began hitting the man with his hands while Torres beat victim about his body with a black baseball bat.
The victim told police that while Torres beat him, Torres yelled that Bodogh was his girlfriend, according to the complaint.
The victim said while he laid on the ground, the two teens went through his pockets and removed about $37 in cash, a cell phone which they smashed on the floor, several credit cards, an EBT food benefit card, a AAA membership card and a box of Newport 100 cigarettes.
Getz then allegedly pointed a handgun at the victim and threatened him that “if he went to the police, he would be dead,” the man told police, the complaint said. The gun turned out to be an Air Soft BB gun. The suspects then ordered the victim out of the home.
He fled to a nearby Sunoco gas station and called police, who arrived and took him to the address where the assault and robbery allegedly occurred.
A female outside the home, when asked by police, told them she lived there with her mother and brother, a blonde haired 15-year-old, that “Ava” was her best friend, Bodogh, and that Torres was Bodogh’s boyfriend.
Later that afternoon, police interviewed Getz, who said he and Torres seriously injured the victim by striking him, and went through the man’s pockets while he was on the floor. He also allegedly admitted pointing an Air Soft gun at the man, according to the complaint.
Torres, when interviewed that afternoon, said that he, Bodogh and Getz conspired to lure the victim to the home.
Bodogh refused to provide any information in an interview with state police that evening.
The three suspects were also charged with robbery with the threat of bodily harm, theft, receiving stolen property and simple assault. They were arraigned in front of District Justice Michael Muth on Thursday, who set bail for each at $10,000 secured.
Story and Photo from the Pocono Record
