Shakespearean angst-

Maybe it's a modern-day version of the Montagues and Capulets.

Or maybe, it's a tale of teenage stubbornness and pride that has tumbled out of control and become a situation where small-town Culpeper is not big enough for the both of them.

Regardless of who is right or wrong, the teenage drama has become a problem for their families, the community and now the police.

Lt. Chris Settle of the Culpeper Police Department said for the past three years, two groups of teenagers have been fighting and it culminated on July 4 in a mob assault on Virginia Avenue.

Police have identified five suspects in the assault that injured three victims.

Those five Culpeper County High School students are facing charges as adults in Culpeper County Circuit Court.

Josh and Jordan Ravenel, Michael Reaves, and Spicy and Arneillus Penn - all cousins - admit they watched the fireworks in Yowell Meadow Park that night. Afterward, they all have different alibis that they say shields them from any involvement in the fight they are now facing charges for.

They gave their side of the story last month in an article, "Enough is enough," that ran Oct. 18.

Now, the alleged assault victims are coming forward with their story.

John Richardson III, Antwaine Morhead (Richardson's brother) and Tierre "T.J." Smith, identify the five as their attackers and say the tension began over a girl and has spiraled out of control.

How it all began
Three years ago, Richardson and Morhead moved to Culpeper with their parents and were friends with the Ravenels, Reaves and the Penns.

Morhead, 16 years old at that time, started dating Spicy Penn's sister and the relationship went sour.

Morhead said Spicy came up to him and his friends at Dominion Skating Rink stating he wanted to fight but Morhead walked away.

Several days later, Richardson was on his way to work when he saw one of his friends get in a fight with Josh Ravenel at a school bus stop in Belle Court.

"I went to break it up," Richardson said. "He thought I was jumping in."

Later that day, Richardson and his brother were working at Long John Silvers when the Ravenels and the Penns came there and a fight ensued with menus thrown in the air and people jumping over the counters to get to Richardson and Morhead.

Police responded and charges were filed but all dismissed.

Since then, the tension has just been brewing.

Recent problems
Over Easter, Andreal Richardson (John and Antwaine's mom) said one of the boys called her son threatening to damage his car. Her vehicle looks similar to her son's and her back window was shattered.

Around the time of the July 4 fight, her vehicle was also spray-painted with the initials "H.P."

Police say the night of the mob assault that many individuals, including the five suspects, walked up to a home in the 700 block of Virginia Avenue and stated the name "H.P." and then committed the assault by mob.

The initials stand for "High Point," a slang term used to describe Highview Court, a street off Belle Avenue.

The boys say they are not a gang, they are family and don't identify themselves as H.P.

Settle said detectives determined they are promoting the name, but without predicate offenses they are not classified as a gang under state law.

The Ravenels, Reaves and the Penns are all facing charges of felony malicious wounding and two counts of misdemeanor assault and battery. The charges are punishable up to 20 years in prison.

The Ravenels, Reaves and Arneillus Penn all pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for jury trials in January and February. Spicy Penn is scheduled for arraignment in February.

Before court days, Andreal Richardson said people call her house constantly trying to intimidate her boys from showing up in court.

"We moved here to Culpeper three years ago," she said. "My husband retired from the military; we just want to be left alone. I can't afford it. I'm a nurse, my husband (now works for the Department of Defense). We can't afford to lose our reputation here because our job depends on it."

Since the July 4 incident, their sons have been living in Stafford with the Smiths (T.J. and his parents). On occasion, they come back to Culpeper to visit their parents but they try not to hang around or even work here.

Last month, John Richardson III was also charged with assaulting Josh Ravenel, after Ravenel obtained a citizen warrant.

However, Richardson said he was in North Stafford at the time playing Xbox with some friends.

Last week, he was found not guilty in Culpeper County General District Court.

His record does not include any violent crimes but one credit-card fraud charge when he worked at J.C. Penney, Andreal Richardson said.

Finding resolution
John Richardson III, 18, Morhead, 19, and Smith, 19, currently work at Marine Corps Exchange (a tax-free department store for military families) on the Quantico Marine Corps base.

Richardson and his brother are graduates of Culpeper County High School where they were involved with the club Future Business Leaders of America. Smith is a graduate of North Stafford High School.

The boys are all from military families and grew up in military housing in Virginia. They have been friends since middle school and played YMCA basketball as part of a mentor program with Smith's dad as their coach.

If they lived and worked in Culpeper now, they say the Ravenels, Reaves and the Penns would seek them out to cause trouble.

However, their rivals say the same about them.

Andreal Richardson said the problem is the Ravenels, Penns and Reaves have family all over Culpeper.

"They don't stand a chance," she said of her sons and their friends. "They are the new kids on the block."

John Richardson III said it's not about territory, though. The tension began three years ago, without any police intervention and is now out of control, he said.

Both families say police didn't do their job by not intervening before and both families accuse each other of lying.

John Richardson III said if the two groups can't be friends, then they should just go their separate ways. He said he's tried to talk to Spicy Penn before to encourage resolution between the two groups. One-on-one, the relationship is different than a big group setting, he said.

"I tried to talk to, uh, Spicy on different occasions and I told him: 'Like, for real, this stuff needs to be dropped. Like this is not even worth it. We're all black, young people in the community, and we don't need to be fighting,'" he said.

"And that's something that I don't have to, I don't want to result to. That's like the last thing that I would want to do. And I talked to him, like, so many times and he tells me, 'OK I'll talk to them and it's going to stop,' and the next day they are following us. They tell us one thing and do another."

His father, John Richardson II, said community leaders need to mediate the situation.

"I just personally feel that the community leaders can be more productive by getting the families together to alleviate this problem rather than letting it go through a judicial process," he said.

"My kids should be able to be productive, be able to work here in this community, but they have to live in Stafford with our friends in order to be able to have a normal life as teenagers.

And that's totally unfair when their home is here."

Liz Mitchell can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 110 or .