Man who punched, hurled racial insults at teen in downtown State College sentenced to jail
A white man who punched a teenage Puerto Rican girl in the face and hurled insults his lawyer cast as unnecessary, in poor taste and crass was sentenced Friday to at least three months in jail.
William A. Ring, 28, was sentenced by Centre County Judge Katherine Oliver to a maximum of one year in jail. He was also ordered to complete an anger management class.
Ring pleaded guilty in May to one misdemeanor count of ethnic intimidation; four charges were dropped.
Ring offered a brief statement before his sentence was handed down, telling Oliver he did not believe he is a threat to the public and respected the decision she was about to make.
Ring assaulted the 17-year-old in June 2022 at the Starbucks housed inside Hyatt Place in downtown State College. His statements included telling the Hispanic her skin color was “ugly” and she should “go back to where you came from.” He also used two vulgarities.
The teen — after Ring grabbed her shirt — spit in his face. Ring punched the teen, Centre County First Assistant District Attorney Sean McGraw wrote in a memo to Oliver, and then pulled out brass knuckles.
Ring also damaged the teen’s phone after he threw it across the store. The punch caused redness and swelling, McGraw wrote.
In his memo to Oliver, defense lawyer Joshua Smith painted the teen as the one who escalated the confrontation. Her actions included recording Ring with her phone.
“While recording someone in public is (certainly) legal, it is perhaps worth noting that pointing your phone at someone to record them, especially after you initiated that encounter in the first place, is needlessly antagonistic behavior that is likely to escalate a conflict, not the opposite,” Smith wrote.
Smith’s memo, Oliver said, offered no remorse or accountability.
Ring has been detained since September 2022 at the Fayette County prison. He is facing several charges — including attempted homicide — after being accused of hitting another man with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and punching two women.
His five-day trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 11.