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Their views: Liberals must be willing to show tolerance

Watchdog: Inmates hid computers, tapped into prison network

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Amber Amos was on her way to meet her son at Kirby Park when her phone rang. It was the hospital.</p><p>Her first thought as she rushed to see Jonathan Weaver, she said, was he was hit by a car. But shortly after she arrived at the hospital&#8217;s trauma unit and saw her son&#8217;s &#8220;mangled&#8221; face, she learned he was blindsided by three attackers in an assault on the outskirts of the park.</p><p>&#8220;He didn&#8217;t even look like himself,&#8221; she recalled Wednesday outside the Luzerne County Courthouse. &#8220;He was a mess.&#8221;</p><p>Amos detailed the life-altering injuries Weaver, 19, suffered after one of her son&#8217;s attackers, William J. Hagenbaugh IV, was sentenced to nine to 23 months in prison for his role in the assault. The 36-year-old from Kingston pleaded guilty to two counts each of robbery and simple assault in February.</p><p>Amos, 41, said her son has had special needs for most of his life, but suffered additional cognitive damages in the attack. He hasn&#8217;t slept right since, she said, and sometimes awakes in the middle of the night screaming.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a nightmare for almost a year now,&#8221; she said.</p><p>According to the affidavit, Weaver, Travis Horst, and Weaver&#8217;s girlfriend &#8212; a juvenile the affidavit identifies as &#8220;KM&#8221; &#8212; met another unidentified teen girl identified as &#8220;BF&#8221; at Kirby Park on July 17. The group walked to a wooded area near the Edwardsville border when three men approached and attacked the boys, the affidavit says.</p><p>Two of the attackers had bandanas covering their faces but a third, later identified as Hagenbaugh, was unmasked.</p><p>Weaver said he didn&#8217;t see the attack coming. He lives in constant fear of another assault, he said Wednesday.</p><p>&#8220;Every time I leave my house, I have to keep looking back making sure nothing&#8217;s going to happen,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The affidavit states Horst, 20, was sending &#8220;elicit sexual messages&#8221; to &#8220;BF&#8221; on Facebook. Hagenbaugh was angered over the messages and instructed &#8220;BF&#8221; to &#8220;talk sexually&#8221; to Horst when she met him at the park, then lead him to the area near the wooded area near the Edwardsville border, according to the affidavit.</p><p>Hagenbaugh, Joseph Davis and David Kossow then jumped Horst and Weaver, the affidavit says. Weaver and Horst were robbed of their cell phones and other belongings. Both suffered severe bodily injuries.</p><p>Court records show Kossow, 24, is scheduled to appear in court on the charges April 24. Davis, 25, is awaiting trial.</p><p>.</p><p><ins>For other local crime stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/crime" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins></p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Attacker sentenced to nine to 23 months</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Joe Dolinsky</p><p>jdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</p></shirttailMeta></div>

‘He was a mess,’ mother says of son badly injured in Kirby Park assault