The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Middie athlete arrested after hearing

'Deejay' Hunter could stay behind bars into next week.

Dwayne Hunter, Jr. stands in front of Judge Mark W. Wall for his arraignment on charges of assault and unlawful restraint at the Middletown Municipal Court Wednesday, May 13, 2009 in Middletown, Ohio.

Staff photo by Nick Graham Dwayne Hunter, Jr. stands in front of Judge Mark W. Wall for his arraignment on charges of assault and unlawful restraint at the Middletown Municipal Court Wednesday, May 13, 2009 in Middletown, Ohio.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Income tax revenues falling short
11/22/09
Prepare a Black Friday game plan
11/22/09
City’s holiday season starts today
11/22/09
Holiday bustle comes to campus
11/22/09
Who wants to be superintendent? Board won't say
11/22/09
> More headlines

By Lauren Pack, Staff Writer Updated 11:04 AM Thursday, May 14, 2009

Dwayne “Deejay” Hunter Jr. was behind bars in the Butler County Jail on Wednesday night, May 13, with no date set for when he might get out, according to his attorney defending him on one of the charges.

“As far as I know there hasn’t been a hearing date set,” said attorney Frank Schiavone. “It could be Monday.”

Hunter, 18, a Middletown High School football and track standout, is scheduled to appear May 29 in Butler County Common Pleas Judge Andrew Nastoff’s courtroom for a hearing on a felonious assault charge for allegedly shooting a 15-year-old boy twice in the face with a BB gun while driving in Middletown.

As terms of his pretrial release, he was instructed to stay out of trouble. The latest arrest prompted a bench warrant to be issued Tuesday afternoon.

Schiavone admitted judges usually don’t take kindly to a defendant not following their orders.

The student-athlete was arrested on Monday, May 11, at Middletown High School, after the mother of a 17-year-old girl alleged to police that Hunter had beaten and held her daughter against her will at a prom after-party Saturday, May 9.

The mother of the girl, described as Hunter’s former girlfriend, said her daughter is “lucky to be alive” after Hunter allegedly choked and slammed her against a wall at the Middletown Ramada Inn, according to police.

Juvenile Detective Janice Jones described the alleged abuse the girl suffered as a “beating.”

A Middletown police report indicates Hunter allegedly went through phone numbers on the girl’s cell phone at a prom after-party at the hotel. He then “went off on her, started hitting her and choked her out so that she was unconscious,” the report stated.

“When she came to, he demanded her to come with him,” threatening to kill her. In the car, Hunter allegedly hit the girl in the face with his hand and fist and “continued to say that he was going to kill her and continued to hit her,” the report stated.

Jones said the girl’s friends are trying to convince her to get out of the relationship with Hunter, but it has been difficult as it often is with domestic violence situations.

“This is the second student from Middletown High School to be treated at Atrium (Medical Center) because of him,” Jones said. “That’s why he has been charged.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2168 or lpack@coxohio.com.

Share this article