A couple convicted of assaulting a Sesame Place worker after a masked dispute has been sentenced to prison

In August 2020, the couple assaulted the teenager at Sesame Place in Langhorne, 26 miles from Philadelphia, after the teenager reminded McCoy of the park’s mask policy, prosecutors said. The policy at the time required face covering at all times in public.

A Sesame Place employee saw McCoy standing in line for a ride and asked him to put on his mask, but McCoy became angry at the request and began calling him, so the young man left to avoid a confrontation. drove away, according to a Bucks County District Attorney’s Office. news release.

Hours later, the young man met McCoy and Bonds on another trip., said prosecutors.

“McCoy threatened to pull out of the trip and teach the employee a lesson,” the press release said. “During the confrontation, both McCoy and Bonds hit the employee in the face, knocking him to the ground. While he was on the ground, the teenager lost consciousness and McCoy continued to strike him.

Prosecutors said the altercation left the young worker with a broken jaw.

A Bucks County jury found McCoy and Bonds guilty in the Bronx on July 9 after a four-day trial before Bucks County Chief Justice Wallace H. Bateman Jr.

McCoy’s attorney, Brooks T. Thompson, told CNN in a statement that “the suggestion that Mr. McCoy hit the Sesame Place employee only because the employee asked him to wear a mask” “Mr. McCoy had completely separated himself from the employee and moved away from the area. By all accounts, he did not rejoin the fight until the mother of his children, Mrs. Bonds, do not engage in physical confrontation with the same employee.”

McCoy was charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct. He was acquitted of conspiracy.

Thompson said he will be eligible for parole after serving his minimum sentence, which in this case is five years. He has already spent more than a year in jail awaiting trial, which will be credited toward his sentence, and should be eligible for parole by the end of August 2025.

Bonds was convicted of simple assault and disorderly conduct. She was found not guilty of simple assault on a different park employee and a second count of conspiracy, court documents show.

“The jury acquitted Ms. Bonds of all serious charges,” Bonds’ attorney Keith E. McAndrews said in a statement to CNN. “Also, the jury did not conclude that Mrs. Bonds had anything to do with Mr. McCoy’s broken jaw.”

“The jury concluded that the actions of Mr. McCoy and the actions of Ms. Bonds were separate and distinct…