Judge Orders Jail Time For 'Bumfights' Producers

SAN DIEGO -- A judge in a East County courtroom sent two of the 'Bumfights' video producers to jail on Wednesday.

The "Bumfights" video, in which homeless men were paid to fight and perform dangerous stunts, stunned the nation. Many viewers found the video shocking and pathetic, but 300,000 customers apparently found it to be entertaining.

Ryan McPherson and Zachary Bubeck pleaded guilty in 2003 to staging an illegal fight and were sentenced to community service and given probation.

Prosecutors told Judge Charles Ervin in January that they wanted the men put in jail because they didn't complete court-imposed volunteer work.

Ervin agreed on Wednesday and sentenced both of the men, who were taken into custody in the courtroom on Wednesday, to 180 days in jail.

Details here from NBCSanDiego.com.

Comments

[K Poulin]

Can we at least try to remember these guys have families?

Ryan McPherson is my cousins son.

While many of you may think he has done wrong, his family still loves and cares about him.

While our children make mistakes in other peoples eyes and even our own, we all still love them, no matter what, even if we admit they are wrong, there is double the hurt in circumstances like this.

So why triple the harm that is caused to everyone.

Talk all you want about this but everyone concerned here is still someones child.

Leave off all of them.

Where were all the complainers when these guys were laying drunk on the street? What have you done to help these guys? Have you gone out and helped them get into a rehab center? Have you personally gone out to see if they had food?

You can condemn all of these young men, yetlook at yourself first, look at your own families: we all condemn others to really hide form ourselves and our own : there are the closet porn watchers pointing fingers, the goodie goodie who visits prostitutes behind everyones back, the all upstanding guy who beats his wife, cheats and does drugs behind closed doors and one who molests his or her own son or daughter.

Leave off these guys, let their families have some peace.

My cousin is a great person, has had her share of pain in life, let her and her family find some peace in all this.

Everyone needs to remember to clean their own front porch before they start on someone elses.

Jimmy, I wish you all the luck in the world. Your mom and dad are behind you and love you I am sure.

Find peace in your own lives, look at your own sins before condemning others, look to what you HAVE NOT DONE before pointing the finger at what someone HAS DONE.

[dayna]

i think it's stupid all this media attension, they dont relise the back lash it must be causing the families,in my eyes they havent done anything wrong only showing the world what it's really like, not how the media tries to present life all the time. rufus and co should be the ones behind bars. fan of Ryan MC Pherson dayna uk

[Anna sizzlebeck]

I am a worker at a shelter for the homeless, and I find this kind of sadistic exploitation of the homeless unforgivable. To take advatage of a vulnerable homeless person, by offering them money, food or shelter to harm themselves or others is no more acceptable than it would be to pay a 14 year old prostitute for sex. These people have no respect for the homeless. In response to the comment "Can we at least try to remember these guys have families?" What the the homeless people? Are they less human because they don't have famlies to take care of them?

[Douglass Flohenke]

I can understand the pain that the families of the producers of "Bun Fights" are experiencing. However, understanding does not mean that the disgusting actions of the producers should go un-punished. I have a cousin who is a Vienam vet suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. After serving his country he found that there was no place for him in society, and became homeless. If I found out that someone had taken advantage of his desperation I don't know what I would do! Having a family does not absove someone from guilt. Adolph Hitler had a family too.

[james]

bumfights is the best , i love it , watch it everyday , bumfights 3 is good but the original will always own .,

[bitchslapthem]

Leave the families of the producers alone???? This is karma, did they think they could exploit vulnerable men without some sort of backlash to people associated with them? Hopefully jail sorts these little pukes out. Maybe the families should sort these two out, in fact the public should aggressively go after the families...kinda of karmic justice. Screw the "leave us alone" bullshit, you raised these doughy middle-class cowards who hide behind a camera and their lawyers' skirts.

[Anon]

all the filmers of this movie were a joke a punch of sissy bitches

[CCF]

Ryen McPherson and Bumfights update here...http://www.pollystaffle.com/questionsandanswers/ryenmcpherson.shtml

[Mark F.]

"While our children make mistakes in other peoples eyes and even our own, we all still love them, no matter what, even if we admit they are wrong, there is double the hurt in circumstances like this."

You've got to be kidding. These losers are sewer rats. I'd give either one of them five bucks to sit in a chair while I beat the shit out of him. Hell, I wouldn't even bother filming it.

[Boni]

While the families of these two producers may have families it does not seem to occur to those families that the "actors" in these videos may have friends, lovers and family that love *them* too. Friends and family that know that images of their loved ones committing degrading acts will forever float in cyberspace. Whatever privacy these people could have had to sort out their lives has been extinguished by this public display of their degradation.

It's not very "artful" to stage films with desperate people. It was sheer economic drive and the desire for wealth and fame that caused this abomination.

The arrogance of these two young men who thought they could not only abuse those less fortunate but then had the audacity to balk a direct court order shows a contempt for others beyond comprehension.

These films are the same propaganda style that Hitler used to "prove the subhumanity of Jews" by showing them as starved and desperate.

Such films show more about the hateful mindset of the filmakers than they do about real-life situations of the people they portray.

I must admire Rufus Hannah for his tenacity and willingness to put himself on the line seeking justice for the indignities he has suffered and will continue to suffer as a result of these films being readily available across the globe.

That is more than I can say for the brats that made it.

[william mccuch]

this non human asshole should be locked up for LIFE OR PUT TO DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Conor]

I dont care who he is, those people being exploited are some mothers son's too. I hope those kids end upbums themselves. And get buggered.

[Dave]

I hope these hateful little bastards wind up homeless and beaten to a bloody pulp by some of their "fans" like that case down in Florida they had on 60 Minutes. Same for the callous people who bought their videos. And as for the whole "oh, but remember they have families" crap... I say the families deserve every bit of trouble that comes their way for doing such a piss poor job of teaching those pukes even the slightest sense of right & wrong. I heard the father of one of these bastards even helped produce the videos, so it sounds to me like the families are accomplices who are just as depraved and worthless as their evil progeny. If there is a hell, they'll richly deserve every bit of punishment they get there.

In the interest of poetic justice, I would gladly pay $1000 to the first person who can show photo or video documentation that any of the "bumfights" producers has suffered a severe permanent injury (ex: loss of an eye or limb, paralysis), and $100 for proof that any of those scumbags has had a serious non-permanent injury (ex: multiple stitches on head or face, broken bone, etc). Remember, I'm NOT encouraging anyone to harm anyone else, merely offering to pay for proof that bad things just happened to have occurred to these evil scum.

[Giggling in Canada]

Heheheh. Bumfights.. I tryed to get a bum on Yonge Street to kick his friend in the nuts for $10.00. He told me to Piss off. I guess Free will comes into play somewhere. Maybe If i'd offered him more?

[Way to take the higher ground]

Well done, people, seriously. So many of you seem sufficiently outraged that you want physical harm to come to the producers of this film/show. That makes you at least as bad as the people you think have done wrong.

Well done, really. Way to take the high moral ground.

[Martin Burnett]

When I saw the documentary on this, Ryen McPherson strongly reminded me of some of the awful, spoiled, selfish brats I used to meet when visiting Hollywood, truly horrible people. I hope that their selfish arrogance and entitlement dereases a bit with some jail time, although I wouldn't be surprised if their parent's lawyers get them off.

[K Poulin is Scum]

I can't believe the audacity that the family member of these human pieces of garbage has to actually ask for understanding? Are you kidding me? This is how those pieces of complete human trash, seriously they are the worst human beings in the world, ended up like this. No accountability for their actions and actually having pride in what the do. Instead of condemning his actions, you publicly support him? Unbelievable. YOUR SCUMBAG FAMILY CREATED THESE DEVILS. You and your degenerate family are responsible for them so own up you piece of trash.