Michael Conway – Martyr or Villain [POLL]

The death of 15 year old Morristown HS freshman Lennon Baldwin is front page news nationwide, as the latest victim of teen bullying.

One of the youths, 19 year old senior Michael Conway, according to his dad and his lawyer is being treated unfairly in the media as the face of the tormentor.

(Since 2 juveniles are charged with the actual bullying of the victim, their faces and identities can’t be shown.)

According to this:

Michael Conway, 19, "should not be used as the poster boy for bullying," said his attorney, Edmund DiNoia.

"Anything he is charged with is not related to any violence or action" against Lennon Baldwin, 15, a Morristown High School freshman who was found dead in his home March 28.

Another report has the father defending his son as a “stupid teenager:

Michael Conway, one of three high school students prosecutors have linked to the suicide earlier this year of a Morristown boy, is a "stupid teenager," but not a bully, his father said Thursday.

Milton Conway acknowledged his son was in a Morristown parking lot earlier this year when two other teens allegedly robbed and threatened Lennon Baldwin — the 15-year-old authorities say committed suicide in March after suffering weeks of bullying — but he never meant to hurt the boy.

"He was trying to be involved in a way to help facilitate a peace between the parties," Milton Conway, his son standing at his side, said during an exclusive interview with The Star-Ledger Thursday. "And, in doing so, (he) wound up in their midst when things happened to go in a different direction."

Yet Conway has been "taking huge shots in the media all across this country," DiNoia said.
Conway, a senior at Morristown, is accused of lying to police regarding a robbery of Baldwin in a town parking garage on March 9. Two juveniles who have not been named, are accused of assaulting, threatening and robbing Baldwin, of Morris Township, between March 6 and March 9.

"The coverage has come across as so negative," agreed Milton Conway, the defendant’s father. He called his son "a good kid" but said school officials forced him to miss his prom, graduation ceremony and a class trip because they are "trying to protect him."

Judge Michael Noonan ordered the case transferred to Superior Court because Conway is accused of an indictable offense. He is charged with false swearing, a fourth-degree offense, in statements he allegedly made to police April 6 and 18.

Okay, so, he misses his prom because school officials are “trying to protect him”…yet is accused of an indictable offense.

If you are accused of an indictable offense, don’t you feel it would be wise to have compelled Conway to miss his graduation, prom, etc…until the charges are rectified; or do you, like the father, feel he is unduly being made out to be a villain in all this?

What say you?

Comment as you see fit!