Cougar Kids Stalk Nashville

Speck, Hud Mellencamp face felony battery charges

By Laura Lane/heraldtimesonline.com

Rock star John Mellencamp’s two teenaged sons face felony battery charges stemming from a July incident during which police say they punched and kicked a 19-year-old man they assaulted on his front porch. The fight left the man with facial fractures and cuts that required stitches.

Speck Mellencamp, 18, 870 S. Woodscrest Drive, and 19-year-old Hud Mellencamp, who gave police an address on Lower Schnooner Road in Nashville, each face a charge of battery resulting in serious bodily injury. The charges were approved Thursday by Monroe Circuit Judge Marc Kellams.

Bond was set at $5,000 surety and $500 cash.

Monroe County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Bob Miller said arrangements are being made for the Mellencamps to turn themselves over to police.

Ty Smith, 19, 3330 S. Spring Branch Road, a friend of the Mellencamps, also was charged with felony battery for his alleged part in the incident. He is the son of Indiana University baseball coach Tracy Smith, and is an IU football team freshman walk-on.

Smith turned himself in at the Monroe County Jail at 5 p.m. Thursday. He was released from the jail at 7:19 p.m. after posting a $5,000 surety, $500 cash bond, according to jail records.

According to a report from BPD Detective Rick Crussen, the man who was injured had been sitting on his front porch with two friends when the Mellencamps and Smith walked up the steps. He said he asked them what they wanted, then was struck in the face by Speck Mellencamp.

After that, “he began being punched, kicked and stomped by Speck Mellencamp and the other two males. They have been identified as Hud Mellencamp and Ty Smith,” the probable-cause affidavit in the case states.

Three roommates inside the house heard the commotion, ran outside and pulled the three assailants off the man. The man said that as he stood up, Speck Mellencamp knocked him backward off the porch, a drop of several feet. The man said Speck Mellencamp continued punching with his fists until one of the roommates intervened. Witnesses said the Mellencamps and Smith then ran from the scene.

They also reported that the three did not say anything, striking without warning. People who were there confirmed that the three hit and kicked the man while he was down on the ground.

Hud Mellencamp is a trained boxer whose bouts have been reported on in The Herald-Times. The Mellencamps told police the fight was in response to Speck Mellencamp being hit in the face at a party at the house earlier that night.

Speck Mellencamp said he had tried to stop a dispute between two girls who were fighting over him and was pushed and hit by a man. He was upset by the incident and not thinking straight, he said, when he returned to the house with his brother and Smith.

During a June 5 appearance on the “Late Show” with writer Stephen King, John Mellencamp explained his black eye, pinning it on his 18-year-old son. “My son and I had words and he got a punch in and I didn’t,” he said.

"Little ditty about Speck and the Hud man
2 American kids breaking faces with their hands
Speck’s gonna beat you and leave scars
Hud will run over your legs with his daddy’s car
Oh yeah life goes on
Long after the thrill of the beatin’ is gone
Say, Oh yeah life goes on
Long after the blood on the porch is gone."

Seriously, don’t name your kids Speck and Hud or some fat blogger will ridicule them without benefit of the doubt. With names like that you have to know these kids are douchebags.