'Text Rage' Leads to Alleged Brutal Teen Beating

MIAMI, March 19, 2010 — -- The only contact 15-year-old Wayne Treacy had ever had with 8th grader Josie Lou Ratley before allegedly beating her nearly to death Wednesday was a brief flurry of text messages earlier that day, Florida police say.

Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti told ABC News that eyewitnesses report Treacy didn't utter a word as he kicked the 15-year-old girl repeatedly with his steel-toed boots, "in the head, soccer style," until a teacher eventually pried him off.

"I think this is probably the first case of 'text rage' we've ever seen. We've had road rage before, but never text rage," said Lamberti.

Ratley was hospitalized with severe head injuries, and Treacy, who confessed the beating to police, has been charged with premeditated attempted murder. A hearing in Fort Lauderdale today will determine whether or not to try Treacy as an adult.

"She's in an induced coma -- part of her skull has been removed to allow the swelling in her head to go down, and she's black and blue from head to toe," Ratley family lawyer Rick Friedman said at a press conference today.

Another girl, 13, is also being held in juvenile detention connection with the incident and could be charged with accessory to attempted murder, according to the sheriff's office.

The message that allegedly triggered such fury in Treacy, a 9th grader at Deerfield Beach High School who authorities say had no previous record, involved a comment Ratley reportedly made about Treacy's 28 year-old brother, who committed suicide last October.

Treacy found his older brother hanging from a tree outside a local church, said public defender Betsy Benson, who is representing Treacy.