September 5, 2008
Bus driver says boy who kicked woman not on trial
The driver of the city bus on which a woman was severely beaten testified yesterday that he remembered the boy who kicked her in the face but that he wasn't among the accused in the courtroom.
Then, the attorney for the boy prosecutors allege kicked Sarah Kreager in the eye threw her arms up in a "touchdown" sign.
Margaret Desonier has contended for months that her client did not kick Kreager, 26, and that the Maryland Transit Administration police bungled the investigation by not interviewing all of the Robert Poole Middle School students on the bus.
Many of the approximately 42 students aboard left the scene at 33rd Street and Chestnut Avenue in Hampden and were not included in a pool from which driver Danny Williams and Kreager's boyfriend selected the nine suspects after the attack, according to testimony. Cases against three have been delayed; one girl has admitted punching Kreager; and five cases began last week.
Since then, prosecutors have struggled to match individual blows to Kreager and boyfriend Troy Ennis with a student whom a witness or victim can identify in court or in a photo array.
Kreager, Ennis and Williams have identified only Nakita McDaniels, 15, who they say started the Dec. 4 fight by denying Kreager a seat.
The Sun does not identify juveniles accused of crimes. In this case, however, McDaniels filed public countercharges against Kreager, alleging that she spit on her and that Ennis used a racial slur. So far, no witness has corroborated those claims.
Yesterday, Williams was adamant that McDaniels started the fight and repeatedly said that he "never heard anyone" use a slur. He said he recalled McDaniels well because she did not show him her bus pass, and he had to walk back to where she sat, filing her nails, and order her to display it.
Last week, Kreager testified that McDaniels told her, "That's my home girl's seat," when she tried to sit and then hit her after Ennis scolded McDaniels.
But Kreager also testified that the boy who kicked her wore a green coat and butter-colored Timberland boots. She described the kicker as a short, light-skinned, bald black boy in jeans.
Then Desonier had MTA police Officer Larry Ball read from a report that showed her client was wearing khaki pants, not jeans, and black shoes, not beige boots.
Later, Desonier had another prosecution witness, MTA police Sgt. Kenneth Combs, read from a supplementary report describing the boy who kicked Kreager. "A male, light-complexioned, bald, green coat, told the girls to hold [Kreager's] head up," he read. "The girls held [her] head up and the male kicked her in the face."
Desonier seized that opportunity to argue that the green coat was the only part of the description that fit her client, who is at least 5 feet 10, with dark skin and an afro.
"And the evidentiary value of the green coat didn't change once you knew my client wasn't light-skinned and bald?" Desonier asked.
Prosecutor Janet Hankin successfully objected, so the question was not answered.
melissa.harris@baltsun.com
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