Circle of supporters band behind a ‘monster’

“Monster.”

That’s how Wayne Treacy described himself just hours after he pummeled Deerfield Beach Middle School student Josie Lou Ratley and stomped on her head during a March 17 beating from which doctors say she will never fully recover.

But not everyone sees him that way.

Some see Treacy, who has been charged as a adult for attempted first-degree murder, as a patient who needs treatment. They see a frightened, troubled 15-year-old boy who overreacted to a heartless taunt and, in a very different way, may never fully recover.

Almost 100 of them have found each other on the “Wayne Treacy Support Group” on Facebook. Most have never met Treacy and don’t live in South Florida, although some identify themselves as classmates at Deerfield Beach High School. Women in the group outnumber men about 2 to 1.

“There are times when people make incredibly bad choices in life,” said Annette Rubin, a Lime Springs, Iowa, mother who was one of the page’s founders. Rubin may only have met Treacy in passing, when her husband, Jason, was Treacy’s second-grade teacher at Norcrest Elementary School in Pompano Beach, Fla. “It’s important to know that these choices do not dictate who we are to become, nor should they decide our future paths in life,” Rubin said.

Treacy’s group is tiny compared with those who express outrage against him and support for Ratley. One “Pray for Josie” page has almost 2,700 members, and a “Life in Jail for Wayne Treacy” page has 167.

But the pro-Treacy group gives the suspect’s mother and stepfather one of their few wells of emotional support.

Treacy was a student at Deerfield Beach High School in October when his brother and father figure, Michael Bell, 30, hanged himself. Afterward, his grades started to slip and, friends said in March, Treacy battled his own anger.

According to Rubin, who speaks with Treacy’s mother and stepfather regularly, Treacy rejected counseling when his mother suggested it.

Then came March 17, when Treacy got into a heated text message exchange while trying to contact his friend, Kayla Manson, 13, a Deerfield Beach Middle School student. Manson did not have her own phone, so to reach her, Treacy sent text messages to a phone belonging to Manson’s friend, 15-year-old Ratley.

The exchange that ensued was callous on both sides: Treacy was called a rapist for his interest in Manson. He fired back with physical threats. The messages ended with a brush-off telling Treacy to “go visit” his dead brother.

Hours later, Treacy knocked Ratley to the ground and stomped on her head while wearing steel-toe boots.

Ratley suffered brain damage. She is undergoing therapy to relearn basic skills.

Treacy has been charged as an adult with first-degree attempted murder and has been in the juvenile section of the Broward Main Jail since April.

“We’re trying to show [Treacy’s family and friends] that there are people out there, people who don’t even know Wayne, who can see him as a human being,” Rubin said.

Another of those people is Sonia Giron, 33, of Avranches, a city in northwestern France. “I am deeply touched by Wayne’s story and I know that all this would never have happened if Wayne hadn’t seen his only brother hanging from a tree,” Giron said via e-mail. “What he did was bad (and I have told it to him) but I know he wasn’t himself when it happened!”

Although they don’t approve of the messages that instigated the confrontation, Treacy’s supporters are usually careful not to transfer blame for the beating to Ratley. “We don’t really know for certain that she was the one who sent the message,” Rubin said. “We only know it was her phone.”

Treacy, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, is about to undergo psychiatric evaluation, and his attorney, Russell Williams, said he is likely to present an insanity defense.

Williams said Treacy has received letters from 75 to 100 people, most showing emotional support without condoning his action. Most are incensed that he is being charged as an adult.

“It is a travesty that his case is not being heard in the juvenile system, where he could serve out his sentence and receive the help he needs in dealing with the trauma he experienced and the resulting anger,” said Alicia Hainsel of Lubbock, Texas.

Half a world away, Giron agreed. “For me it is clear: Wayne deserves a second chance,” she said. “He needs therapy, maybe for a long time, but certainly not prison.”

rolmeda@sunsentinel.com