Offered a chance for community service with deferred adjudication and the possibility of a dismissal at the end, the brothers took it. Meyson's attorney, Byron Boenig, rejected the option on Meyson's behalf. "Basically what they made the offer on was exactly the same as the two boys who attacked him. In light of the fact that the kid didn't do anything wrong, I just thought that was kind of overreaching. And two, I like the kid. I don't think he should have to plead guilty to something he didn't do."

"I take things with a grain of salt," Boenig says. "I raised daughters and I've been through the school systems. I know kids do things that are not the right thing all the time. The description they have provided of Meyson has been off-kilter from the very beginning. There's nothing in his history that represents a troublemaking kid."

So they held out for a jury trial, which, when it was set for April 10, pretty much dashed any chance that the matter would be cleared up in time for Meyson to hop on back to St. Pius any time soon.
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Over the Christmas holidays, Alson decided to try another route. He went over to St. Thomas High School. He was pretty exhausted by the whole thing by that time, he says.

"I told them, 'If you want him and want my money, okay; if not, I don't care,'" Alson says. Right at the start, he told them what the situation was, in fact, gave them copies of all the school and court correspondence he had to date.

St. Thomas called a couple days later and said they'd like to consider admitting Meyson. He would need a recommendation from his Waltrip teachers and principal; he'd have to come in for interviews with all his prospective teachers at St. Thomas, and he'd have to write an essay.

The other issue that St. Thomas was concerned about was whether Meyson, who'd already be starting halfway through the year, would be able to catch up with the courses with their heavy workloads. If they were going to try to do this, it'd have to be done soon.

And then, Alson Garcia got his moment of grace. "The Waltrip teachers were just amazing. There was no problem getting their recommendations."

Meyson's chemistry teacher, Charles Randolph, wrote that "Meyson has always displayed a high degree of integrity, responsibility and ambition" and "is an asset to any student body." His social studies teacher, Milton L. Dailey, who is also a coach at the school, wrote: "He is thoughtful and respects the rights and desires of others." His sociology teacher, Michael E. Stackhouse, noted that Meyson had maintained an A average in his class, "has always turned in assignments when they are due and I have never had any discipline issue with him."

All this was a far cry from the earlier portrait of Meyson at Waltrip as a mouthy troublemaker with no respect for the school's football tradition, an interloper who'd just caused trouble.

The only recommendation that was not immediately forthcoming was that of the school's principal, Steve Siebenaler, Alson says. It took a call from the dean of instruction at St. Thomas to Siebenaler to finally acquire that last puzzle part, he adds.

And so Meyson was admitted to the spring semester at St. Thomas. He still had his court date ahead of him, and the Garcias worried that an unfavorable outcome there would oust him.
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On April 10, at 8 o'clock in the morning, the Garcias and their lawyer went to court before Municipal Judge Esmeralda Pena-Garcia. They carried the teacher recommendations on school letterhead, the school announcement listing Meyson on Waltrip's A-B honor roll for the fall semester, the invitations Meyson had received for trips abroad because of his grades and demonstrated leadership skills.

Alson also was carrying a report from J. Vara Investigations, a private-eye firm he'd hired to talk with witnesses in the case. The investigator talked with Officer Washington, who said he couldn't remember much about the incident and wasn't good with names. Washington said he'd need to pull his report to remember the details, but then declined to do so.

The private detective never connected up with star witness teacher Leonard, who'd transferred to Kashmere High. He talked with Ron Thomas, a counselor and substance-abuse officer at the school, who'd heard the "commotion," but said by the time he arrived, the two players were back on the field and Meyson was up in the stands. He told the investigator that Leonard said that Meyson had started it. "When I talked to the football boys, they said he should not have been up here."