Sarah Kreager said yesterday that her life was already at its "toughest" point when she was attacked on a city bus on her way to get a prescription filled.

She was homeless, had been charged a few months earlier with illegally selling prescription drugs to an undercover police officer, and had been sued twice in two years over money owed to a hospital and a car dealer, according to court records.

In her first court appearance since the attack, Kreager told Circuit Court Judge David W. Young yesterday that her injuries and the trial have further complicated her already unsteady life.

Kreager said she remains separated from her three children, all under age 5, and did not want to reunite with them until after the trial was finished. She also said her blurred vision in her left eye, which prosecutors say was caused by a vicious kick to the face during the attack, may be irreparable.

"A surgery will be needed," she said as she began to sniffle and then cry. "This has definitely changed my life."

She also said that she was angry over the "untrue statements" from defense attorneys aired by the media, and she chastised reporters for placing calls - harassing or not - to her mother.

Yesterday she sat next to her boyfriend of 10 years and the father of her children, Troy Ennis, and forgave but never turned to face a 14-year-old girl who admitted to participating in the assault. Kreager, 26, attended the same middle school - Robert Poole - as her attackers.

Assistant State's Attorney Alfred Guillaume said yesterday that her homelessness might have saved her from further harm. At the time of the Dec. 4 beating, Kreager was wearing layers of clothing - nearly every item she owned.

And it was those layers, Guillaume said, that protected her ribs and stomach from more serious injuries.

Workers at Sinai Hospital destroyed her clothes, Guillaume said. Yesterday, Young ordered one of her attackers to pay Kreager $50 to replace them.

Sun reporter Gus Sentementes contributed to this article. melissa.harris@baltsun.com