One teenage girl was sentenced to a juvenile detention facility and four others to home detention Wednesday by a juvenile court judge who called the December bus beating of Sarah Kreager one of the most troubling cases he has seen in 23 years.
“It reduced me to tears,” said Baltimore City Juvenile Court Judge David Young during a long, emotional speech. “I just wonder what has gone so wrong, so wrong in our families, our community, our churches, our schools.”
Young?s comments came moments before he sentenced Nakita M., 15, the vice president of the Student Government Association at Robert Poole Middle School, to a secure juvenile facility, telling her she was the leader of a pack of students who brutally beat Kreager, 26, and her boyfriend Troy Ennis, 30, on Dec. 4 as they rode home from school on a Maryland Transit Administration bus.
Prosecutors revealed Wednesday that Nakita M. has six documented incidents of violence.
One of those incidents ? in which a girl was stabbed with a knife and beaten unconscious ? resulted in her being convicted of assault in juvenile court and sentenced to probation, which she was on during the time of the altercation with Kreager, prosecutors said.
“There are many types of leaders,” Young told Nakita M. “There are leaders for positive, for good. There are leaders who chose to use their leadership abilities for wrong. … The next person who crosses her might be a homicide victim.”
Young sentenced four other students found involved in the attack to home detention.
Outside the courthouse, Kreager said she felt like she didn?t need to give an statement in court, because the judge spoke for her. She said statements made about her by defense attorneys in court were hurtful.
“I don?t like traveling by myself,” Kreager said of the effects of the beating. “I was physically beaten, but then the attorneys came out and tried to beat my spirit. It was all unprovoked and it was all lies.”
Young said the case captivated the city of Baltimore, because of deep-seated divisions between racial groups here.
“This case grabbed the attention of our community, our state, and sadly enough our nation,” he said. “… Our city is divided. Our country is divided.”
Just before the sentencing, two middle school students who were acquitted of beating Kreager filed notice Wednesday they plan an at least $5 million lawsuit, alleging their constitutional rights were violated when they were arrested, suspended from school and banned from riding the city buses.
The two 15-year-old students filing the suit had theircharges dropped by prosecutors after completing 15 hours of community service.
Kreager called the lawsuit insulting ? and said the students might have a suit aimed at them in the future.
As she walked away from the courthouse, Kreager recalled a moment that sticks out in her mind during the December assault.
“I stood up,” she said, recalling being kicked in the street. “I stood up to let them know they could beat me, but they couldn?t beat me down.”
