PALMETTO BAY, Fla. – After spending nearly a week in a juvenile detention center, a Miami Palmetto Senior High School baseball player accused of injuring a teammate will get to go home.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Yery Marrero released 16-year-old Jeremy Singer from juvenile detention into home detention and lowered his charge from aggravated battery, a second-degree felony, to a felony battery charge, a third-degree crime.
“The child has no delinquent history ... the child has no current cases before the court,” Marrero said in court about Jeremy’s record.
The order for home detention is in effect until 5 p.m., on Feb. 8. Marrero also ordered him to stay away from the victim he injured with an air horn on Jan. 18, at Coral Reef Park, at 7895 SW 152 St., in Palmetto Bay.
“It is an unfortunate incident. I know that there has been a victim that has had stitches, so I am not downplaying this because there was injury,” Marrero said. “I will note the testimony of the officer who doesn’t feel that Jeromy is a danger to others.”
Jeremy was allegedly upset because the 15-year-old teammate had brought french fries into the dugout, which they were not allowed to do, and this had prompted their head coach to extend the entire team’s run by two more laps as punishment, according to police.
The air horn hit his teammate’s ear and the injury that he suffered required six stitches at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, according to prosecutors.
“He let his teammate know that he was very terribly sorry — immediately sent him a text,” Attorney Edward O’Donnell IV, who represented Jeremy, said adding that the next hearing in the case is on Feb. 1.
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Frine Gomez and Photojournalist Lani Carrier contributed to this report.