All charges have been dropped against three of nine middle school students accused in the high-profile beating of a 26-year-old woman aboard a Baltimore City bus.
At a hearing Thursday at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, prosecutors said six of nine teenagers remain charged with assaulting Sarah Kreager, her boyfriend, Troy Ennis, 30, and the No. 27 bus driver on Dec. 4 as they rode home from Robert Poole Middle School in Hampden.
Kreager suffered two broken bones in her left eye socket during the attack, police said.
Silenced by a gag order in the case, prosecutors declined to comment on why they dropped the charges against three of the teens.
During the motions hearing Thursday, Margaret Fleming, a Maryland Transit Administration detective, testified that while investigating the assault, she was surprised to learn she couldn?t view any evidence of the attack on the bus?s security camera, which malfunctioned.
“There was no footage on the tape,” she said. “The tape was blank.”
Fleming said she tried to learn what happened from a 15-year-old girl who was at the center of the altercation with Kreager, but she believed the girl lied.
“She spit on my face,” the teen said, according to a tape-recorded statement played in court.
The detective said she tried to scare the girl by threatening her with adult charges and a 10-year prison sentence.
“You gonna tell the truth?” Fleming asked.
“I am telling the truth,” the girl responded.
“Who started the fight?” the detective asked.
“She started the fight,” the 15-year-old said.
In a statement that drew gasps from the crowded courtroom, the girl said Ennis got on the bus and shouted he was going to “stab all these n—!”
The only other witness called Thursday, MTA police officer Larry Ball, said he never asked any of the students? parents to come to the Juvenile Justice Center to be present during the interrogations.
Defense attorneys want to have the students? statements to police suppressed.
Another hearing is scheduled for Monday.
On Wednesday, a dozen protesters marched outside the juvenile center, demanding prosecutors drop all charges against the so-called “MTA 9.”
