OC Mom Of Teen Who Punched Player During Game Must Pay 9K, Apologize

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — An Orange County mother must pay more than $9,000 in restitution and write an apology to a teenage girl who was punched in the neck by the woman's daughter after she yelled at her daughter from the stands to hit the girl at a youth basketball game.

La Puente resident Latira Shonty Hunt, 44, was charged last December with one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and one misdemeanor count of battery. She faces a maximum sentence of one year if convicted on all counts.

On Nov. 7 2021, Hunt was in the stands at a youth basketball game in Garden Grove watching her teenage daughter compete.

According to reports, Hunt yelled "you better hit her for that" to her daughter after she interacted with another player on the court. Moments later, the rival player fell on the court after an "unprovoked attack" which was captured on now-viral video, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office.

On Wednesday, an OC Superior Court judge granted the mother misdemeanor diversion in return for completing a series of requirements over the next two years. The requirements include writing an apology to the victim, completing anger management classes before she can go to basketball games again.

“Parents have a fundamental responsibility to raise our children to be good human beings who treat everyone with dignity and respect,” OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a news release. “Youth sports play a crucial role in developing discipline, teamwork and fair play. A grown adult directing a child to use violence against another child on the basketball court is reprehensible. By instructing her own daughter to engage in violence, she is not only responsible for injuring an innocent child as if she punched her with her own fist, but she transformed her own child into someone who is willing to hurt another child.”