SHARE Jasmine Pennix Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office

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A teacher's aide who was fired, then criminally charged, after a viral cell phone video showed him grab a Bay View High School student by the throat and force him to the floor may have been the victim of a set up, his attorneys say.

New information about the case is detailed in a motion to change bail conditions for Jasmine Pennix, 39, who was charged last month with physical abuse of a child, a felony. It has also been reported the 15-year-old victim of the school attack has a serious juvenile crime record and was arrested since the incident in connection with theft of seven cars from a dealership.

According to the court document, an adult witness came forward recently and told an investigator for the defense that the day before the April 20 incident, the person was standing near four teens at a bus stop near Bay View High and overheard them talking. One said to the others, "I will get in his face, and you get ready to video it. Once it happens, we can sue MPS and get rid of him," the person said.

The witness, who is not identified, even by gender, said he or she assumed the boys were talking about another student or teacher, but after seeing news stories days later about Pennix, realized he was probably the target, since the witness had also heard the boys refer to what the witness heard as "Pinix."

The witness first contacted the public defender's office, assuming it was representing Pennix, then used court records to find his attorneys, from Kohn Smith Roth.

The motion suggests that the plot explains why the video does not show the physical provocation that Pennix says caused his reaction and distorts "the truth of what actually happened," which was an attack on Pennix.

His attorney, Steve Kohn, asks in the motion "to what degree an assault must occur before the defendant is allowed to quell the assault and decentralize the assailant."

Kohn argues the new information, for now, is at least enough to remove requirements that Pennix report to Justice Point pretrial services while out a signature bond, since he has every intention and motive to appear in court and clear his name.

Pennix, Kohn writes, has an education and no criminal record, has always worked "and is in all other facets a law-abiding citizen."

WISN-TV reported this week that two days before the Bay View High altercation, the boy had tried to steal a pizza delivery driver's car but was thwarted when the man was able to punch the would-be thief through the driver's window.

At the time, the boy was wearing an ankle monitor because of an earlier armed robbery arrest.