A La Puente mother accused of telling her daughter to hit a rival player during a youth club basketball game in Garden Grove has agreed to write an apology and pay more than $9,000 in restitution to the teenage victim.
Latira Shonty Hunt, 44, will also take anger-management classes before attending another youth basketball game, as part of a misdemeanor diversion agreement approved by an Orange County Superior Court judge on Wednesday, Sept. 14.
Hunt has two years to complete the requirements outlined in the court diversion program, which would resolve a criminal case in which she was charged with misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and battery. Had she been convicted of those charges, Hunt could have faced up to a year in county jail.
Video footage spread widely over social media captured Hunt’s daughter on Nov. 7, 2021, throwing a punch that floored Pacifica Christian sophomore Lauryn Ham, who, the family’s lawyer said, suffered a concussion.
The video shows Ham running along the court to play defense, apparently overrunning her position and then appearing to lightly touch the waistband of Hunt’s daughter in an apparent effort to balance herself.
Hunt’s daughter immediately fell to the ground, the video shows. Prosecutors alleged that Hunt responded by yelling at her daughter, ‘You better hit her for that!’
Seconds later, prosecutors say, Hunt’s daughter threw a roundhouse punch that apparently caught Ham unaware.
Because of their ages, the DA’s Office has not used the name of either player, but Ham spoke to a Southern California News Group reporter about returning to the basketball court.
In a motion filed with Superior Court prior to the hearing, Hunt’s attorney, Brett Greenfield, urged the judge to show mercy for Hunt, who the attorney described as a single mother of two who had never before faced criminal charges.
“Defendant has been the source of national news exposure, ridicule, racist threat and rants for several months (and) was forced to hide in a hotel with her children due to the nature of the violent threats,” the defense attorney wrote. “Defendant was forced to pull her juvenile daughter out of school for months and only now is her life starting to become normal again…
“Defendant has paid a serious price and has been forever affected by the constant onslaught of threats because of the thousands of social media posts and replays of the incident,” he added.
The player who struck Ham is the daughter of former NBA player Corey Benjamin, who after the video of the punch became public released an apology on social media expressing shock and disappointment at his daughter’s actions.
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