California mom must pay $9K US for telling daughter to hit sports opponent

A California mother must pay more than $9,000 US in restitution and apologize to a teenage basketball player she told her daughter to hit during a youth basketball game in 2021, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The woman's daughter punched the opponent in the neck and she collapsed on the court, suffering a concussion. The punch was recorded on cellphone video.

The mother, Latira Shonty Hunt, was criminally charged last year with one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and one misdemeanor count of battery. She faced up to a year in jail.

An Orange County judge allowed Hunt, 44, to participate in a diversion program that includes a written apology letter, restitution and anger management classes before she can attend basketball games. She must also stay away from the victim.

"A grown adult directing a child to use violence against another child on the basketball court is reprehensible," Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a news release. "By instructing her own daughter to engage in violence, she is not only responsible for injuring an innocent child as if she punched her with her own fist, but she transformed her own child into someone who is willing to hurt another child."

The criminal case will be dismissed if Hunt complies with the diversion program, her attorney, Brett Greenfield, said in a statement. The lawyer said Hunt and her daughter took responsibility for their actions.

"Ms. Hunt and her daughter can now begin to heal," Greenfield said. "Unfortunately this incident opened the social media door for many individuals to make direct statements to Ms. Hunt and her minor daughters. These statements were infected with racism, bigotry, threats, humiliation, bullying and more. The