5 students responsible for attack

A Baltimore juvenile court judge found five Robert Poole Middle School students responsible yesterday in the December attack on a city bus passenger and her boyfriend, concluding a divisive case fraught with racial overtones.

Judge David W. Young's decision followed nearly two months of court hearings on the Dec. 4 fight in Hampden, described by several 911 callers as a riot. The attack prompted stricter safety standards on city buses and left Sarah Kreager, 26, with two broken bones around her left eye.

Nine black teens were initially accused of "rising up en masse" and attacking Kreager on the No. 27 bus after school had let out for the day.

Defense attorneys argued that Kreager's left eye was already bruised when she boarded the bus and that when the students began snickering at her, Kreager's boyfriend, Troy Ennis, ordered her "to spit on them [racial slur]."

But prosecutors said the youths attacked Kreager, who is white, after her boyfriend accused one of them of immaturity for refusing to relinquish an empty seat.

"We're pleased the judge was able to reach justice and that Sarah Kreager and Troy Ennis have been vindicated," Janet Hankin, the lead prosecutor in the case, said after the hearing. "This was a brutal, vicious and unnecessary beating, and what the respondents accused them of was untrue, unfair and uncalled for."

Young had each teen stand with his or her attorney as he read his ruling. The youths - dressed casually in jeans and some in T-shirts - did not flinch or show emotion as they listened to the decision.

Four of the students were found involved - the juvenile equivalent of guilty - of first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and conspiracy in the attack on Kreager. They also were found involved in reckless endangerment in the attack on Ennis.

A fifth student was found involved for the reckless endangerment of Kreager and for second-degree assault and reckless endangerment against Ennis.

Earlier in the case, a sixth teen had admitted hitting Kreager. Young delayed cases against three others; those cases are likely to be dismissed.

"I don't understand the state's attorney's argument," Garland Sanderson, a defense attorney for one of the youths, said after the judge issued his ruling. "All I could gather was that there was an allegation that a group of black kids assaulted individuals on a bus. 'We arrested a group of black kids. They must be guilty.' There is no evidence outside of that."

During closing statements, defense attorney Barbara Greene said, "There's nothing like an ugly racial slur and a little spit to turn things ugly."

And defense attorney Kimberly Thomas said her client was the victim.

"There's a victim sitting right here, your honor," she said, pointing to Nakita McDaniels, 15. "A victim, and she's charged?"

During these statements, Kreager sat next to Ennis, taking notes, shaking her head and eventually breaking down in tears. When Young called a five-minute break, Kreager began sobbing in Hankin's arms.

Kreager returned to the courtroom at the city's Juvenile Justice Center to watch Hankin dissect McDaniels' initial statement to Maryland Transit Administration Police on the day of the attack at 33rd Street and Chestnut Avenue.

Going line by line through a packet of transcribed statements, Hankin pointed out that McDaniels had repeatedly said that Ennis ordered Kreager to "spit on them bitches" and did not use a racial slur.

McDaniels then alleged that Ennis had reboarded the bus wielding a knife - an allegation not substantiated by witnesses - and said, "I'll stab those [racial epithet]." Hankin pointed out other discrepancies and described how the students had plenty of time to "collude" as they dispersed from the scene and eventually were stopped by police.

"This has divided the community and created unnecessary racial tension," Hankin, deputy chief of the juvenile division of the city state's attorney's office, said after the ruling.

The five teens will learn their punishment April 3. The names of most of them are not being divulged because The Sun does not report the identities of juvenile offenders. But McDaniels' name became public after she filed countercharges against Kreager in adult court, which prosecutors did not pursue.

Assistant State's Attorney Dawn Jones accused McDaniels of being the "queen bee" in a "beehive," by taking up two seats on the crowded bus and then harassing Kreager after she boarded and sat down.

"That's my homegirl's seat," Kreager testified that McDaniels said.

Kreager then moved closer to Ennis, who responded, "You know how these kids are these days. [Our daughter] has more manners," Jones told the judge. "That's when the queen bee rose: 'What you say? You white bitches think you own everything.'"

Despite the judge's ruling, defense attorneys did expose holes in the investigation by MTA police. Greene emphasized that police let 12 to 16 passengers walk away from the scene and never followed up with the school's principal to get their names or interview them.

One investigator delayed filing his report for months. Photo arrays weren't conducted until nine days after the attack. The initial police report contained errors.

And after police stopped two groups of students - and Ennis and bus driver Danny Williams identified participants in the fight - those let go were never questioned and their contact information was never gleaned.

Defense attorneys also tried to damage Williams' credibility. Soon after the attack, he said, "As far as being hit, if I did, I didn't feel it." On the witness stand, he said he was punched and kicked.

MTA police "worked the case backward," said Thomas, who said her client "got spit on, knocked down ... and she fought back. She was scared."

Thomas called Kreager the "queen bee" in the incident, who didn't "sting," as prosecutors alleged that McDaniels did, but "spit venom."

But in the end, it was one of the accused's own statements to police that captured the hatred the students felt for Kreager, Hankin argued.

Police asked one of the boys, a 15-year-old, how he felt about "the victims being assaulted? One being in the hospital?"

The boy replied, "I don't feel no ... I don't feel nothing."

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