Baltimore City prosecutors are engaging in “discriminatory prosecution” by trusting the word of a white woman over the statements of black middle schoolers in a high-profile bus beating case, a defense attorney argued Wednesday.
“I?m not trying to make this a race issue,” said attorney Kimberly Thomas, as she argued that charges should be dropped against her client, Nakita M., 15. “Nakita has been unjustly and unfairly discriminated against by the state.”
Five teens remain charged as juveniles with first-degree assault in the beating of Sarah Kreager, 26, her boyfriend, Troy Ennis, 30, and the No. 27 bus driver on Dec. 4, as more than 40 students rode home from Robert Poole Middle School in Hampden.
Thomas? client alleged Kreager spit on her and punched her seven times while Ennis yelled racial slurs and threatened to stab the students ? but Thomas said police and prosecutors ignored those allegations.
“Why was that never investigated?” Thomas asked. “The state?s discrimination is based on race and age.”
Prosecutor Dawn Jones said Thomas? assumption that her client?s statements weren?t investigated is “not true.”
“Sarah Kreager had three lacerations in her head, two fractures [in her face], hemorrhaging behind her optical nerve and bruises across her body,” Jones said.
By contrast, Jones argued, when police asked Nakita M. to show her injuries, the girl lifted up her lip to show a cold sore, then said, “It?s gone.”
Judge David Young said he would issue a ruling on Thomas? motion today at 10 a.m. prior to the start of the trial.
Young also rejected motions from defense attorneys arguing that Ennis and Kreager?s identifications of the teens should be barred from the trial.
Public defender Margaret Desonier said there were 42 students on the bus, but police officers detained a smaller group outside the bus on a curb, where the identifications took place.
“They should have had all the children there,” she said.
Of the nine students initially charged in the beating, prosecutors have dropped three of their cases, but secured one conviction. Last week, one 14-year-old girl pleaded “involved” ? the juvenile equivalent to guilty ? to misdemeanor assault after admitting to striking Kreager one time.
