RICHLAND CO. – Information at the Richland County courthouse shows that the lawsuit filed in December against East Richland High School (ERHS) might be frivolous.
According to the evidence in a set of Orders of Protection on file dating back to late December 2015, Hannah Reeves, the girl who was the petitioner in the civil case against the school filed in December 2016, was actually the aggressor in the matter, and not the victim.
Why the case never went to law enforcement, however, remains the real question at hand, since David Hyde, long known as the do-nothing prosecutor in Richland County, was out of office when the situation emerged, and yet, no charges were filed against Reeves.
Alleged attack December 2015
In the January Special Edition, the article about Reeves’ lawsuit against two other ERHS girls at the time, Julia and Eva Shaw, was featured and noted that it was Reeves’ claims that the two beat her up on the school parking lot, in front of ERHS assistant principal Andy Julian.
It was alleged in this suit, filed December 15, 2016, a year after the alleged incident, that school officials did nothing to stop the attack, and that Julian watched as the two girls beat up the innocent Hannah, who had supposedly forewarned the school that she was “being harassed” by the two girls.
Reeves and her mother Kathy, both of whom brought the suit, named not only ERHS and the two girls (both of them minors at the time), but also the ERHS board of education, Richland County Community Unit School District #1, Julian, and the girls’ parents, Doug E. Shaw and Jodi E. Shaw, as culpable in this alleged attack, and are seeking a judgment in excess of $50,000 for each count, five in all.
OP wars in Richland County civil court
However, OPs on file at the Richland County Courthouse in Olney tell a bit of a different story.
Hannah Reeves’ mother Kathy initially took out OPs against both Julia and Eva Shaw on behalf of Hannah, this on Dec. 18, 2015, outlining their version of events, and was granted those on an emergency basis on that day, the Shaws apparently felt like they had a bit of a better case for OP, and they set out to prove it.
According to the filings made Dec. 28, 2015, under a Stalking/No-Contact Order (civil order where there exists no relationship between the parties involved), the Shaw girls’ father Doug brought the case against Hannah Reeves because, as they brought out, she had been harassing and had been the one to subsequently attack his girls, not the other way around.
“On Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015,” Doug Shaw wrote in one of the petitions for protection for his girls, “Hannah Reeves repeatedly sent threats to Eva Shaw while she was in her home. A total of 20 times she threatened Eva with violence. On Wednesday 12/16 the threats continued while at school. After school Hannah lunged at Eva and Julia during a confrontation. She repeatedly scratched and pulled both girls’ hair.”
In the second petition, he elaborated a little further, indicating that “On school property, Hannah still threatened Eva and then included Julia as well. In the school parking lot, on 12/16, Hannah lunged at Julia and Eva, pulling hair and scratching both girls repeatedly.”
The record sheet shows that the petition was filed as an emergency OP and Shaw took the petitions in front of Judge Larry Dunn.
Dunn heard the pleadings with both Shaw parents and at least one of the girls present. However, since an emergency OP had been issued for Kathy Reeves, Dunn denied an emergency OP under the circumstances, and advised that he was setting an expedited hearing on the case for two days from that date (for Dec. 30, 2015), and the Reeves were notified.
Harrell hears the other side
They all appeared in court on the 30th in front of Judge Kim Harrell this time, and it was, according to court sources, something of a petty response on the part of the Reeves.
For whatever reason, Hannah Reeves had set her attention on the pretty Julia Shaw, and had, prior to the incident at the school, begun sending her social networking messages telling her she was going to beat her up and the like. Despite Shaw first telling Reeves to leave her alone, then ignoring her, Reeves kept up the electronic communication referencing violent attacks.
The Shaws provided roughly 20 pages of printed-out threats from Reeves, which also contained proof that Shaw had told the girl to stop contacting her and had never once threatened back in response.
In fact, information came to light that Julia Shaw had actually started up an anti-bullying program at ERHS, in order to fight this very thing.
Harrell heard all testimony and ordered a six-month Stalking/No-Contact Order against Hannah Reeves and in favor of the Shaws.
Things become clearer
Whether that was something that begat the impetus for the Reeves to file a lawsuit against the Shaws remains unknown.
However, the suit, perpetuating Hannah Reeves’ version of events, was filed on the one-year anniversary of the alleged incident.
Given that the Shaws had provided material showing Hannah Reeves to have been the instigator of the situation, that the situation was limited to a little bit of hair-pulling and scratching, and that it boiled down to a she-said/she-said situation, it becomes clearer why there was nothing done on the criminal court end of things.
As well, given that Assistant Principal Andy Julian was present when the alleged physical contact broke out and that it was somewhat limited in scope, it becomes clearer why the school probably decided to sit this one out until someone in the court system made some sort of decision.
That the alleged assault was limited, according to court testimony, doesn’t bode well for the Reeves’ recently-filed civil suit, however.
And that Hannah Reeves seems to be doing just fine, posting photos and videos of herself conducting strenuous yoga techniques on her social networking pages and doesn’t display the first sign of “permanent injury” that would lend to some kind of obvious indication she was hurt badly enough to warrant any judgment of $50,000 under any count, also does not bode well for the civil suit.
So the next question would be why the Reeves felt it was necessary to take up the court’s time and effort with something that effectively had already been decided – and hadn’t warranted a criminal filing – after a year.
That question might best be answered in court, as the case proceeds and someone makes a determination that it actually has merit, or is just a frivolous filing by a drama-fueled fitness nut who, according to sources at the school, has a tendency to send photos of herself to people that she probably shouldn’t be distributing.
More on that in upcoming issues.
The civil complaint filed in December 2016 has had a first setting made, for March 1, 2017, in front of Judge Harrell.