Investigators say that video not only proves the parents were involved, but also provoked the fight.
It happened Saturday at the Cuney Homes public housing complex on Truxillo in the Third Ward. Not long after the last punch was thrown, the video was uploaded to YouTube by an onlooker. Two teenage girls, both said to be middle school students, got into a faceoff as the parents of one of the girls watched the fight brewing, but they're accused of becoming involved themselves.
According to the affidavit, one of the girl's parents "assisted their daughter in fighting when they realized the complainant (the other girl) was winning the fight."
That 14-year-old girl accused Charles Fields of picking her up and slamming her to the ground, while his wife punched her and put her in a choke hold.
The couple was arrested on Monday. Fields, 36, is charged with injury to a child and remains in jail. His wife, Nicole Curtis, was arrested as well, and released on bond.
Mary Fields is the mother of the accused.
"They said my son and my daughter-in-law tried to separate them. My son, who has a temper, body-slammed the girl and they said my daughter-in-law pushed her away," Mary Fields said.
The father of the 13-year-old girl allegedly beaten by Fields and his wife says there was friction between the girls at school, but looking at the video he blames the other parents.
"If you're grown like that, you're supposed to come and tell me, let me know and we get this situated right. That was the wrong way to do that," he told us.
And that's what most disturbs some other parents.
"The first thing as a parent I would have done was grab my child, put them in the car and take them home," said neighbor Enis Domio.
Fields and Curtis are due in court on January 4, 2013.
