Guilty plea in Rusch case

A 16-year-old Morgan Park High School student has pleaded guilty to the two counts of battery in the beating of 14-year-old Beverly boy Ryan Rusch in July 2006. The plea was in exchange for dropped attempted murder charges.

A warrant was issued for a 16-year-old Corliss High School student after he failed to attend court for a second time. He is the second of three black teenagers arrested after several witnesses said they saw them beat and rob Rusch in broad daylight. Rusch was hospitalized at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he spent more than a week – during part of which he was in a drug-induced coma. He als suffered partial vision loss in one eye.

One of the juveniles later told police that they had attacked Rusch because he was a “goofy-looking white boy” – something that originally prompted police to investigate the incident as a hate crime.

The third teenager - 18-year-old Micha Eatman - was convicted of aggravated battery, robbery and unlawful restraint in March but cleared of attempted first-degree murder after Judge Joseph Kazmierski Jr. ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict him. Eatman was sentenced in April to the maximum seven years in prison.