Nov. 20, 2024 11:50a
(WGTD)---We’re learning more about Martel Lee, the 16-year-old Black Kenosha teen who was convicted of sexual assault by a divided jury.
Several supporters spoke Tuesday at the Kenosha Union Club.
Alderman Kenny Harper knows Lee through a business development class for young people that he helped teach two years ago. "He would come into my office bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to learn," said Harper, owner of an insurance and financial consulting business. "When I heard this news about what he had supposedly done it made me sick because that could be my son. Martel is a good kid," he said. Harper helped Lee open a Limited Liability Corp. that offered a clothing line.
Tanya McLean from the advocacy group ‘Leaders of Kenosha’ said the Martel Lee case fits a pattern. "This case is an example of the harmful consequences of the 'adultification' of Black children and the often unjust discipline they receive in schools and communities," she said. "Black children--especially boys--are more likely to be perceived as threatening or unruly, leading to harsher punishments or even criminalization for behaviors that would be overlooked in their white peers."
Lee was accused of sexually assaulting a male classmate in a bathroom at Indian Trail High School earlier this year.
There were no eyewitnesses, and the alleged victim shifted several details of what supposedly had happened. At one point he briefly recanted.
Several jurors, when contacted by WGTD News, said they were unduly pressured into agreeing with the majority to convict Lee.
Lee’s attorney is seeking a new trial. A hearing is scheduled for this Friday at 11 in Judge Gerad Dougvillo’s courtroom.
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