Despite pleading guilty last month to nearly drowning another teenager, Massachusetts 15-year-old John P. Sheeran will not be spending any time in jail for his wrongdoing. Instead, Judge Sylvia Gomes has sentenced the boy to three years of probation and 700+ hours of community service, a punishment she deems “a fair resolution for all parties,” per Cape Cod Times. Needless to say, many believe this outcome to be unfair, seeing how Sheeran “is getting off easy because of his white skin and privilege,” according to Amplify POC Cape Cod founder Tara Vargas Wallace.
For those who are unfamiliar with the case, John P. Sheeran was arrested in 2023 for luring a black teen to Goose Pond in Chatham, Massachusetts, where he and another accomplice attempted to drown the victim until a bystander came to the rescue. Robert Galibois, who was the DA at the time, claimed that “this was not a matter of horseplay, but was a criminal act” and possibly racially motivated. The reason is that Sheeran and his friend called the victim the ‘n-word’ and ‘George Floyd,’ among other slurs and insults.
Before the attempted drowning even took place, Sheeran was reportedly throwing rocks at the victim and threatening to beat him up, according to a police report obtained by the Daily Mail. This wasn’t the first occurrence of the racist Cape Cod teen violently assaulting another minor. He was suspected of punching an Asian child in the face in an incident unrelated to the attempted murder, according to the Chatham Police Department.
“Zero remorse, can tell from the smug s***-eating grin on his face. F*** him,” reads the top comment of a Reddit post reporting the Massachusetts racial case. The commenter is referring to how, in many photos taken of John P. Sheeran, he is either smirking or has a relaxed, smug look across his face. “If there were ever a poster child for “bully that’s protected from consequences”, it’s those pictures,” remarks a second.
One Redditor calls for justice to be placed on Sheeran’s parents as well: “His family should be sued civilly and publicly shamed.” Another expresses both their disgust and disappointment with the case’s outcome: “I’m furious at the DA who agreed to this light sentence. He used the BIPOC community to win his election, but when push came to shove, he let a racist get away with attempted murder.”
It should come as no surprise that Sheeran’s family is pretty well-to-do, owning a $1.6 million ferry business and being able to afford a highly renowned lawyer, Kevin Reddington. Whether people believe the punishment to be an injustice or a fair outcome, it’s concerning how Reddington called Sheeran’s ‘racist’ label to be a “manipulation by the alleged victim.” Based on the case’s police report, there’s a pretty high probability that this was a racially motivated crime.
