Teen speaks out after being branded at Struthers party
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Seventeen-year-old Derrick Reber was about 24 hours away from death after being branded at his cousin's house by an adult while several people were allegedly cheering on the sadistic torture.
The teen has had skin grafts where his skin was melted away in three different spots.
The brandings started after Reber lost a bet to eat a moonshine soaked cherry.
"I was branded twice more against my will," he says. "You see this stuff on movies, gruesome stuff, and that's how this was. I saw the video and he had this torch and the metal was glowing hot, and he thought it was funny. They all thought it was funny. He shoved it into my hip. He just didn't put it there for a second. He kept pushing, and I screamed so loudly, my voice box gave out, and I couldn't scream no more."
The teen was walking through the neighborhood with a friend when they saw the garage open at his Cousin Brian Pryma's house and decided to stop.
Now Pryjma, Laura Lyden and Ronald Bier, are charged after a video from the August 11th party was posted on YouTube and Facebook.
Reber says Lyden, an employee of the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office, gave him some pills and marijuana for the pain afterward.
An indictment handed up last week charges the two Struthers residents, Lyden, 46, and Pryjma, 38, with Endangering Children, Corrupting Another with Drugs and Felonious Assault.
Bier, 35, also of Struthers, is charged with Endangering Children and Felonious Assault.11
21 News is not identifying a fourth suspect in the case, who Reber says is the one that did the actual act of branding him, because he has not been charged yet.
Reber's dad, Robert Reber, says he was disturbed after watching the video that showed his son being branded.
"[The fourth suspect's] eyes had this look, like he enjoyed it," he explains. "There were people cheering in the background hooting and hollering and my son is crying trying to get them off. He couldn't move. He couldn't get away."
No one intervened to help, and now Derrick Reber has a new, darker view of the world.
"Never in a million years did I think they would do something like this or let something like this happen to me," he says. "I am suspicious of people now and who I can trust."
Robert Reber changes his son's daily dressing and thanks God he took his son to the hospital as soon as he realized something was wrong.
The three suspects face arraignments in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.