Mar 4, 2008 12:33 pm US/Eastern
Woman Beaten In Bus Attack Can Only Identify 1
BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) ―
Although nine students have been accused of beating a woman on a city bus last year, the victim told a judge Monday that she was only able to identify one of the accused youngsters.
Mike Hellgren reports Sarah Kreager, 26, and her boyfriend, Troy Ennis, were on a bus in Hampden in December when they were attacked, allegedly by nine students from Robert Poole Middle School.
One student acknowledged her role in the attack, and cases against five began Monday. Cases against the other three alleged assailants have been delayed and might be dismissed, according to court documents.
Kreager said she couldn't point out the girl in the courtroom because she couldn't see as far as the 30 feet that separated them.
She has previously said that the attack left her with blurred vision.
Kreager was the first witness. She said that 20 to 30 students streamed out of the bus, many of them advancing on her.
But in photo lineups viewed weeks after the attack, Kreager said she could only identify with "100 percent confidence" the girl she said started the incident.
Kreager said she never saw the face of the boy who later kicked her in the face because she was balled up in the gutter, trying to protect herself from the attack. She was certain, she said, that the youth was wearing a green jacket and butter-colored boots.
"There's no reliable ID; no photo ID," defense attorney Margaret Desonier, who is representing the boy accused of kicking Kreager, said in her opening statement. "The state hangs its case (against my client) on the color of a generic jacket. 'Green' does not mean guilty."
Kreager described the attack in detail on Monday. She testified that the girl she could identify told her the seat she was sitting in was taken and then threatened to move her when she didn't get up. Kreager said she moved seconds later and went to stand with her boyfriend by the rear door of the bus.
But when Ennis said the middle schooler had worse manners than the couple's 5-year-old daughter, McDaniels taunted them with an expletive-filled tirade, Kreager testified.
"I was thinking, 'Look, you can have the seat,"' Kreager said. "(The girl) swung and struck me in the face. There was an uproar.
A female's legs came up out of a seat on the left-hand side. The noise level went from loud to even louder. I heard a male yelling 'Stop!' from the front of the bus."
Three of the five defense attorneys have cross-examined Kreager.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
WJZ.COM's Most Popular Slideshows
