One of the middle-schoolers charged in the high-profile beating of a 26-year-old woman aboard a Baltimore City bus admitted her guilt Thursday in juvenile court.
A 14-year-old girl pleaded “involved” ? the juvenile equivalent to guilty ? to conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and second-degree assault in the beating of Sarah Kreager on Dec. 4 as the girl and fellow Robert Poole Middle School students rode home from Hampden.
“She admitted to striking the victim one time,” said the girl?s defense attorney, Jerry Tarud. “She maintains the fight was instigated by the victim.”
Judge David Young agreed to sentence the middle schooler to “community commitment” ? home detention without an ankle monitoring bracelet ? and ordered her to attend yet-to-be-determined programs recommended by the state?s Department of Juvenile Services.
The plea to both misdemeanors marks the first conviction for prosecutors in a case defense attorneys claim is troubled by shoddy police work.
A few weeks ago, prosecutors at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center dropped all charges against three of the nine teenagers originally charged with assaulting Kreager, her boyfriend, Troy Ennis, 30, and the No. 27 bus driver.
Kreager suffered two broken bones in her left eye socket during the attack, police said. As motion hearings continue, five students still stand accused in the case.
One of those students, a 15-year-old girl, filed countercharges against Kreager, alleging the woman spit on her and punched her seven times while Ennis yelled racial slurs and threatened to stab the students.
Baltimore City prosecutors dropped those countercharges.
The trial could begin any day.
