Law&Crime Sidebar - Football Player's Skull Crushed in High School Campus Mystery

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

August Borden, 15, was severely injured at Deshler High School, suffering skull and orbital fractures and a concussion. His family disputes the school's "traumatic fall" explanation, suspecting a cover-up and demanding answers. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down all the latest theories, and gets an update on August’s condition, with the teen’s father, Jason Borden.Tip Line:  [e-mail] SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wonderry Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. When I arrived in the hospital and saw my son laying there like that, for the first time ever, my 15-year-old baby boy, not being able to communicate with him, I got angry and I wanted answers. What exactly happened to a 15-year-old freshman out of Alabama who's recovering from extensive injuries to his face, skull and brain? That's the question we can't figure out. Is there miscommunication? Is all the information being revealed? Are they being accurate?

Who's being told what? We are going to bring on the father of this young boy to hopefully get some answers and see how August boarding is doing right now. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. We're going into Skumbia, Alabama. It is there that a 15-year-old is recovering from skull and orbital fractures and a concussion. He was apparently unconscious for.

two days. And while physicians have indicated that this boy, August Borden, is expected to recover that there are no signs of permanent brain damage, thank goodness. These are horrific, horrific injuries. So the natural question is, what happened? That is not clear. The Descumbia Police Department released a statement on August 23rd, and it reads, The Descumbia Police Department is aware of the recent incident at Deschler High School involving a 15-year-old in our community. We understand there are many questions and concerns being shared, and we want to assure you that this matter is being taken very seriously. Our investigators are actively reviewing all available information and evidence. Because this is an ongoing investigation, specific details cannot be released at this time.

However, please know that our priority is to ensure a thorough and fair process while protecting the privacy and well-being of those involved. We appreciate the community's patience and trust as we work diligently to determine the facts. When we were able to provide further updates, we will share them here. So what exactly does that mean? Well, I'm going to bring on August's father in a little bit to see how August is doing and see what he's hearing about what may have happened to his son. But even before we do that, here is what we seem to know so far based on the current reporting. That on August 19th, August, a freshman and football player was airlifted after being hurt at Deshler High School. This is according to WAAF and WAAY.

And also apparently, according to WAAY, August's mother, Kristen Van Devender, was told by the school that her son, had sustained injuries from a, quote, traumatic fall. And when she saw him, he was covered in blood. But it seems that she and August's father may not be buying that. Reportedly saying that August was found at the top of the stairs, not the bottom, near a main entrance to the school, with her adding, they tried to brush it under the rug we feel. Again, we're going to talk to his father in a minute.

But in a recent post, August stepfather, Drew Van Devinder, wrote, this has been an extremely difficult week for our family. August sustained skull fractures and lost consciousness for almost two days. From one parent to another, you don't know fear until you see your son flown by air evac to a hospital hours away. We still have no real details of the incident and would just like answers. Please message Kristen Mans, Van Devender, or myself, if you or your child has any information. There is also an update that August is home in recovering. UAB doctors say he should have full brain function within the next two weeks.

He is progressing well. he still has a few trips back to UAB for the facial fractures once the swelling subsides. Thank you all for your prayers and concerns. I wasn't trying to start a revolution. I just wanted to get answers as any parent would. Also, it should be noted that per reporting from KBTX, August mom and stepdad say he never received CPR before he was airlifted to the hospital. Now the mayor of Tuscumbia, William Foster, said in his own statement that, quote,

our first priority was to get the young man the medical attention he needed as quickly as possible. On this, our first responders and medical professionals appear to have done excellent work with a serious injury, and I'm happy to report the young man was discharged and is now recovering at home. The mayor added that August cannot remember details of the event calling his recollection scant and that he describes Tuesday as a blackout. Quote, the initial 911 call was a medical call. It was not a criminal call. The initial report was that August fell.

Some have said he fell off the bleachers. Some say down some stairs in a building. Some have said he fell down some stairs outside a building. building. As you can see, there are a lot of different stories and the stories differ even within those who were there when August got hurt. Foster added that they will, quote, get to the bottom of this and quote, until further notice, let us please lift up August and his family in positive thoughts and healing prayers. Now, the Tuscumbia City Schools also said on Monday, August 25th, that they were cooperating with the Tuscumbia City Police Department on the incident that happened

on August 19, 2025. We continue to pray for the student who was injured and their family. We ask that you continue to lift them up in prayers as well. Now, speaking of prayer, there is a prayer vigil that has been set up for August 30th. There is a Facebook group for it, and it says, quote, we will meet at the waterfall and come together and pray for August Borden, a freshman at Deschler High School. And since yellow is his favorite color, we should all do it for August. And if you don't have anything yellow, then wear Deschler attire for him. Please invite anyone you know that would like to come and pray with us for August. You know, obviously as I'm talking about this, I can't help but wonder, you know, potential litigation that could result.

We actually talk about that a lot here on sidebar, litigation, lawsuits. You know who are experts in litigation, by the way, in personal injury? Morgan and Morgan, our sponsor, America's largest injury law firm. You know why they're so big? Because they win a lot. They have recovered over $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. In the past few months, a client in Florida received $12 million after the insurance company offered just $350,000.

Out in Pennsylvania, a client was awarded $26,000. million. That is 40 times the insurer's $650,000 offer. Another client in Pennsylvania received $29 million after being offered only $500,000. And even if you think your case isn't worth millions of dollars, why not just start a claim and fight for what you deserve? Morgan and Morgan makes it so simple. You can start a claim from your phone in just eight clicks. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar by clicking the link below or scanning the QR code on screen. Now talking about what an impact this boy has, a close friend told KBTX, quote, everybody loves August.

August is the type of person like if you need something, he's got you. If you need a dollar in the lunch line and you don't have it, oh, here's two bucks. Go buy yourself a drink. He's the kid that everyone should want to be friends with. So as you can see, this is very strange, right? And to make matters even stranger, there is reporting from 1819 news about potentially this resulting, from an altercation or scuffle with another student. So that leads to questions.

Is there a miscommunication? Are there inconsistent statements? Is everything being revealed the correct way? What is going on here exactly? Okay, so with all of that in mind, I want to bring on right now, Jason Borden, this is August's father. Jason, thank you so much for coming on. I am so sorry for what August is going through, for what you're going through, what

the family is going through. I know this is an incredibly difficult time. It's not easy talking about this. but we obviously have a lot of questions about what's going on. First question, how's August doing? Yeah, you know, and thank you for having me on. You know, it's very important that we get this message out. And I know that we've been, you know, all over the news.

It's wild just in a couple of days, how it's gone from a couple of Facebook posts to actually a global reach now, which is just insane, the amount of growth. But, you know, as far as August goes, he's doing okay. I think that, you know, overall, he's going to have, a lot of long-term trauma to deal with. The good news is that from a brain standpoint, he seems to be making a recovery. He did suffer a concussion, but they're not seeing any signs of anything that was going to cause any kind of long-term trauma to the brain, which is great. That's hard to say because we don't, you know, the brain's a funky thing. You don't know

what's going to happen 20 years from now whenever things pop up. What is that road to recovery look like? Does it require what kind of, you know, certain treatment? I mean, surgeries, is he going to make it back to school in the next few months. I mean, have they given you an idea about what he should expect? Yeah. So, you know, there are going to be a lot of follow-up appointments. We've got a ton of different specialists out there that we've got to go see within the coming months. We've got appointments set up about his face because remember right now he has a fractured skull. He still has two broken orbital bones beneath his eye sockets. And then there's just going to be some long-term stuff that he's got to deal with about his brain. Like, you know, it's great. They let us go from

the hospital because they said, you know, as far as we can tell, everything looks okay, that we feel well enough to release him back into your care. But there's still going to be a ton of follow-up appointments with neurologists for a very long time. So awful. How are you in the family doing through all this? You know, we're hanging in there. I mean, we're remembering and having to remind ourselves that this is about August. There's, but, you know, I'd be lying if I said that we're not frustrated.

We're angry. We want some answers. And that's what I wanted to get, I wanted to talk about particularly, particularly in this case. So, first of all, to be clear, has August been able to tell you or law enforcement what happened? Has even been interviewed by law enforcement at this point? No, he's not been interviewed by law enforcement at this point. We've asked August on our own, and he's telling us that he doesn't remember anything. And I have no reason to doubt that. The law enforcement currently, their spin is that they want to talk to August and they can't really move forward until they talk to August. And that sounds a little weird to me because

let's just imagine that hypothetically, I don't study law. I don't understand all that. But just tell me this. Let's just say worst case scenario that August didn't pull through that he actually died there on that sidewalk that afternoon. Would the entire case just be completely thrown out if August was unable to talk to law enforcement, that the firsthand eyewitnesses that they have, the names that they have, would all that go away just because August wasn't there to defend himself? No, the answer is no. They would investigate it clearly because, but obviously when you have, and thankfully we're not in that situation, when you have a surviving victim in this case, that account, it becomes, you know, tantamount. But clearly they can move forward with investigating,

you know, even without his statement, which actually makes me wonder, have they given you any indication that they've interviewed witnesses, that they've retrieved maybe surveillance footage, cell phone footage. Have they given you any indication about what they're doing right now? No, they've not. They've given us, you know, we asked, I know that Drew, August's stepfather, was on the phone with the lead investigator yesterday afternoon. August's stepfather said, you know, how's everything going to the investigation? He said, well, we're just kind of, you know, it's a long, drawn out process. It's going to take a long time, which seems to be common in these kind of scenarios. It's not that it necessarily has to take a long time, but I think that's a

tactic that they use to draw things out. One thing that was bizarre, you know, because if you don't know, this has never been a whodunit case. We knew within three hours of the fall of the accident exactly what happened and exactly who did it. School officials told us, and I have it recorded on audio, we know exactly who did it. And we asked, you know, Drew asked that lead investigator yesterday, have you talked to student X, we'll say. And they said, uh, who? And he said, you know, student X, the one that we've told you, the one that everyone on social media is telling you is exactly who was responsible for this. And they said, no, we haven't spoken to him yet. Now remember, today is day nine now since the accident happened. They've had this for nine

days and still haven't spoken to this student X. When Drew said why, he said, well, you know, Drew, it's a, it's a complicated situation. Let's clarify this for a second. So this idea of him falling down the stairs or anything like that, for our viewers who don't know, why are you saying that that doesn't make sense? I mentioned before about the location of where August was found. And just to be clear, you're saying the evidence that you've seen right now suggests there was some sort of altercation with a student and that's what escalated and led to August's injuries. Absolutely. We knew that from the very beginning. when I arrived in the hospital and saw my son laying there like that for the first time ever

my 15 year old baby boy not being able to communicate with him I got angry and I wanted answers and I know how things work I know how people's minds work that they want you know you can't give them time to to cooperate on the story I want answers immediately so we start dialing phone numbers the very first phone call that I make this is less than three hours after the incident happened I was told that there was August and another student They got into some kind of scuffle. We don't really understand what happened that this kid picked him up from behind and had him like in a tight squeeze and heard him gasped.

And then August hit the ground, assuming, you know, that he's up in the air, that he fell and hit the ground. After that, I made a call to another school official and just, you know, hey, here's what I know already. This is what the high school football coach has told me. So what else happened? Tell me more. This is the student services director.

that school. He told me, and this is recorded. Absolutely. Brian Murner. He told me, he said, hey, you know, here's what we know. August, they were, they were kind of teasing this kid. I don't know if I can say why. I think it's all out there. People have, you know, talked about this a lot. But ultimately, they were just kind of teasing this kid about something at school. And the kid went up behind August. He singled him out. Apparently, there were multiple students around at this time fellow football players. He singled out August and Brian Werner told me that he picked him up from behind and squeezed him so tight that August started convulsing. Now, I don't know. Again, I'm not a medical professional, but I do have Google and I do understand that you can squeeze

someone so tightly that in seven to ten seconds your lungs can't produce enough oxygen to go to your brain. That will cause you to pass out. It will cause your body to tremble to convulse and appear like you've had a seizure or appear like you've just gone limp. But he told me, Brian Merner, that that happened. And then this other kid, which he told me his name on that phone call, I don't know if he dropped him on the ground or purposely threw him on the ground. That part's a little unclear. But, you know, with the type of injuries that we're looking at, whether it was malicious or not, it's still, you almost took my son's life. And that's not okay. Have you had an opportunity to speak to anyone else about this besides Brian Murner? Have any of the

students spoken to you? Has anybody else corroborated what happened here? Yeah, we're getting a lot of feedback. We set up just a private email address. Justice for Aug at gmail.com. AUG is in like the shortened version of August. Justice forog at gmail.com. We set that up yesterday afternoon and I've had probably 20 to 30 emails coming in from students. We told them, hey, if you're scared, just create a fake email address. Just let us know what happened. And I can tell you that it's skimming through those emails. The story is exactly the same amongst dozens of people. A couple of things here. Did August, was he able to tell you the last thing that he does remember? And has he ever had any

conflicts with anyone in this school, particularly this student that you're mentioning? Yeah. No, August hasn't told me, you know, I think that from what we've gathered so far that he He remembers being at school. He remembers doing his weightlifting, and then everything right now is kind of a blur. And then he remembers being in the hospital on Thursday, 24, or 48 hours later. So, you know, and that's another thing. With brain injuries, that's a very traumatic experience. He may remember, maybe tomorrow morning. He wakes up and says, oh, my gosh, I remember everything. That could happen. It may not. But, you know, as far as that goes, we don't really know. When you're seeing these comments, these public statements from the police and the school district and the mayor, what do you make of them?

Well, you know, I will tell you this. I feel when I went on Friday morning, and this is all over, I did another podcast that you can hear where I went into great detail for an hour about the timeline of those first 72 hours. But I went to the school and said, hey, I need a full investigation, a full transparency. see, I want to know exactly what happened. I want written statements. And they said, yes, we're going to keep you in the loop. You're going to know everything that's going on as soon as we do. This is from the school superintendent.

And by Friday morning, I still hadn't got any response back, which, by the way, the school principal, Jessica Bird, still to this day, has never called and apologized to me. She's never responded to my emails. But after that, you know, I went to the police station on Friday morning and I said, hey, I'm here to file a police report and I want to press charges for assault and battery. The cop that I spoke to, he told me, hey, I'm very aware of the situation. I was actually the first person derived on the scene. He said, whenever I was there, though, what do you mean

you want to press charges for assault and battery? Because we were just told it was just a kid that fell down. He said, I went around and asked a couple of people at the school. I don't know if he was there for an hour or 15 minutes, but everyone's story was kind of the same that it was just, hey, we don't really know. A kid just fell, fell down and tripped and hit his head. He told me at that moment that because of that, he never filed a police report that day. It was just an accident, right? So when I told him and gave him this information, I put everything, those phone calls that I told you about, where I have a full firsthand breakdown, which, by the way, let me back up. Brian Murner did tell me twice now that there were two school employees, two faculty members,

two coaches that were standing 10 feet away when this all happened that witnessed everything. Why, their testament isn't important enough to go forward with the case. I'm not really sure. This new information that you have, you brought it to police, right? Absolutely. And what happened? I gave them an 8-gigabyte flash drive that had all those phone calls with the name, everything on it.

And they said, great, we'll be in touch with you. They actually took me to the school because this cop said, we thought this was just an accident, but this sounds like there's a lot more to it. Let's go down to the school together. Very nice guy. He took me to the school. We went into the SRO office where they keep all the cameras, not all the cameras themselves, but obviously, like, all the footage is there, right? And, you know, he asked, you know, where's the footage?

And the SRO, which you would assume is like the first place that you would go if there's some sort of case that needs to be looked into involving a student incident, like they should be involved, in my opinion. I think that that's probably a common thing because even the cop chose to go there first, right? Right. He had no idea that there was anything going on other than. August fell and hit his head. So this is the first time the SRO. This is now Friday morning and this incident happened on Tuesday afternoon. This is the first time the SRO is even aware that anything else is going on other than the kid just fell and hit his head. That tells me that that superintendent never followed through. He told me he was opening an investigation. He told me

they were going to look at the video, see if anything exists, but that didn't happen. So when I gave that cop, that flash drive with all those calls, ultimately, just to fast forward a couple minutes, Just yesterday, an article came out in their local newspaper that the police said that the father, talking about me, did go to them saying that I wanted to press charges for salt and battery, but unfortunately, I didn't give them any evidence. Now, I recorded, this will come out at some point, I recorded that conversation with that cop, and I said, here's your flash drive. This has the phone calls. This has the school student services director naming exactly what happened and exactly what did it. And he said, yes, thank you. This is going to be very helpful for us.

So tell me how exactly did I not give them any evidence? Did you reach back out to the reporter? No, I haven't yet. This is, I just found out about this last night. Just dumbfounded, you know, this is, I wish I had an explanation for you. I really don't. Going back, did the, has the, the mayor was public with this as well and released a statement. Eventually, yeah.

Have you attempted to reach out? to the mayor's office about this or in any way? No, I personally, you know, I've been trying to do the right thing. We've given them time. I went to the school first. I followed the chain of command. I went to the school asked for transparency. I went to the cops and asked for help.

I'll tell you this. I just called that police station. They told me on Friday that my police report would be ready first thing this week that I could just get a copy of it. Just my written statement, right? From Friday afternoon when I was at the school. I just got off the phone with them right before I called you. I said, hey, I'm here.

I'm calling because. I need to get a copy of a police report. They never asked my name or anything. She put me a hold and came back and said, hey, sorry, we don't have a police report for you. And I said, but you've never, you don't even know who I am. Yeah. Isn't that weird?

And what did they say? They said, well, what's your name? I gave her my name. She said, yeah, we don't have a police report for you. And I said, well, I filed this on Friday. How long does the police report take? Because they set the expectation that would be ready by midweek today, which, I mean, it's Wednesday, in my opinion.

And it's midweek, right? She said, well, they've just, you know, they have shifts. They work. And and today is the first day that someone's back. And I said, so I'm not trying to be rude, but just explain to me. Are he saying that, like, the cop that I spoke to, he's just been off for five days? She's like, no, it's just going to take some time. Okay. I understand there's a case, but an initial report, just my written statement, that should be done in a matter of minutes, right? Like, if you go down to the police station and file a police report, that's a pretty common scenario. Well, based on what you're telling me, again, I don't have an explanation. This doesn't quite make sense to me.

This is obviously getting more and more public, okay? A lot of people are talking about this. People who are watching this, how can they help? How can the public help to get more information and answers for you and the family? What can they do? We've got the audio. We know who it is, why they're not doing that, why they're not taking that at face value. That's beyond me.

I don't understand that part, but what you can do to help, you know, number one, We care more about getting this justice for August now than anything. So, you know, we set up that email address I mentioned earlier, Justice for Aug at gmail.com. I'm looking for anything. I've gotten a lot of anonymous tips that all the story is exactly the same. But, you know, we at this point, we need someone that's ready to step up and help us bring this to a close. I don't know if they, if that's what the holdup is.

You know, these kids, they're scared. I'll tell you this. And I don't know this. For fact, this is what another parent just told us yesterday. day. They said, hey, my kid was there when it happened. And get this, they said that this kid, now again, this is not fact. Like, this is just something that was told to me, right? This parent said that her kid witnessed everything and that the school rounded up the kids that were there and witnessed everything, brought them in the office and made them sign a form. I don't know what exactly the form is.

I do know that a minor cannot sign an NDA without a parent or guardian present. So if these kids, you know, we know this. We've got firsthand reports that the football players have been told that they're not allowed to speak on this at all. I've heard that the football players are kind of split down the middle right now with half of the team just wanting to win the games. And that's all that matters. And half the team saying, dude, I don't want any part of this. Everybody in the whole school's mad at me now. And I didn't even do anything. Right. So there's a lot of friction there. But we really need someone to just step up. And whether it's video, audio, anything that you got that we can take to the police to get this. buttoned up. We're going to have to give them, you know, just an overwhelming amount of evidence. And if the school's already admitted, who did it? And exactly what happened, if that's not evidence, I really don't know what else is. Jason, before we wrap things up, because I know you have so much on your plate with this, have the parents of this particular student, have they said anything in general? Have they said anything to you? What can you tell us there? Yeah. No, I don't know them.

I don't know anything about them. I know the name that I was given, and that's it. They haven't reached out to me. They haven't reached out to August's mom and stepdad. So there's not much for that. Well, listen, this is a really distressing story. Again, when I'm talking to you, I don't have, as I keep saying, I don't have answers for you. It doesn't make sense.

This is very, very strange. I want to continue the conversation. We're going to keep our eye on it. We're going to see what develops. You have an open platform to come back on here to talk about it and see how August is doing. But I'm very happy to hear that he's going to make a recovery. that you're getting this outpouring of love and support. I understand August is a very loved individual in that school,

and clearly you have such a strong love for him, and so does the family. So I guess, you know, I think that's the important takeaway from this at the end of the day. So please send August our best wishes, a speedy recovery, and we'll continue the conversation here. You got it. Thank you so much for having me on. And that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us.

And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify. wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.