Witness to NCH beating being harassed for speaking up

CINCINNATI - One of the witnesses to the North College Hill beating that left a man brutally injured is speaking about what he saw and how his family is being harassed for speaking up.

Marquis Rhode is a big guy. A former wrester, Marquis weighs 268 pounds and stands almost 6 feet tall. His stature may have helped save someone’s life.

“They normally don’t say nothing to me at all. They say stuff to my little brothers but they won’t say nothing to me,” said 17-year-old Rhode. “His eye was real black and big. He had a bloody nose and it was just dripping everywhere, it was crazy. He had a bruise on his forehead because somebody had threw a can at him."

On Aug. 11, Marquis says he was at a friend’s house on Simpson and Dallas avenues when he saw six boys jump his neighbor, 45-year-old Pat Mahaney, who spent several days in the hospital recovering from massive internal injuries after the attack.

“One of the boys was sneaking up behind him and they just hit him out of nowhere, then out of nowhere everybody started coming in and jumping in on him,” Marquis said.

Marquis said the six boys ran away when they saw him coming.

In August, North College Hill police charged the six teens after they say the group severely beat Mahaney because they were "bored." The teens range in age from 13 to 14 but could face an adult sentence if convicted. Now Marquis’ little brother says he’s being targeted by a brother of some of the teens involved.

“The older brother went over to my son and grabbed my son's shirt and my son was pushing him off of him saying 'Don’t grab on my shirt, let me go' and he wouldn’t let him go and they ended up fighting,” said Robins Rhode. She’s the one who filed the report with the North College Hill Police Department on Sept. 4 and wanted to press charges against the boy.

“If they can do that they are just going to keep getting in my children’s face and taunting them and keep on. I don’t feel like my children have to fight. That’s not what they go to school for. That’s not what I’m teaching them,” Robin said.

The police report states that Marquis’ little brother was pushed to the ground and lost two teeth as a result of the confrontation at North College Hill High School.

When asked if he regrets speaking up about the beating, Marquis answered frankly.

“No because I know I helped a man. I helped somebody. It made me feel good,” he said.