GREENSBORO, N.C. — A trial took place Friday for a Greensboro apartment manager accused of hitting two children at the complex's pool last summer.
62-year-old Kimberly Jennings was found guilty of two counts of simple assault on a child under age 12.
The incident happened back on August 3, 2023, at Sedgefield Gardens pool.
Police said Jennings hit two children who did not live at the complex. Video of the ordeal surfaced online and sparked outrage among neighbors. In it, Jennings is seen splashing a drink onto an 11-year-old boy and hitting him. The judge allowed for the video to be played during the trial on Friday after Jennings attorney said the video couldn't be authenticated.
In court Friday, we learned that there was a prior encounter between Jennings and the children.
Back in July, the children claimed Jennings tried kicking them out of the pool area, then "held them captive."
Jennings said she wanted them to stay, so she could call the police on the children for trespassing.
The children said that's when Jennings pulled the little girls hair, and smacked her.
Jennings said that didn't happen, but the 11-year-old did throw a full water bottle at her head causing her to have a black eye.
After that, the children said they ran home.
WFMY News 2 spoke to the boy in the video back in August when the incident happened.
"She untwists the Coke bottle and starts splashing it on me. Then, she hits me twice," the 11-year-old said.
The family doesn't live at the apartment complex and there are several no-trespassing signs, but said said he and his sister had visited there before because they had friends who live there.
This time, he said Jennings was trying to get him and his 8-year-old sister to leave.
"She said not to come back this time. The other time, she never said not to come back. So, that's why we kept going, because it's summer, it's hot, it's a pool," the boy said.
Jennings said before the video started rolling, the boy was getting out of the pool and spit on her.
Jennings told the court room that she was scared the boy might attack her saying, "Yes, it was wrong but I was protecting myself."
The children's father said he and his family were outraged by what happened.
"It gives you no right to ever put your hands on anybody's kid or any child at all. A child is a child," Robert Lee-eury said.
Jennings apologized a couple days after the incident, saying she "should have handled it differently."
The attorney for Jennings said they are claiming self defense in this incident, and it was necessary for her to behave the way she did. The defense said the children are undisciplined and there wouldn't have been an incident if they were.
The state said this wasn't self defense. Instead, they believe it was retaliation to the event that happened back in July. The state said Jennings did this to embarrass the boy, and she was not in danger.
The judge ruled that Jennings is guilty of both charges. He said he understood Jennings frustration towards the boy, given their history of prior encounters, but that doesn't give her the right to assault a child.
The judge also said the only person he believes told the truth in court Friday was the little girl.
Jennings' lawyer said she will not be appealing the decision.
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