"Respondents."
Young also said we weren't to take pictures of the respondents or show them on television cameras, either.
Y'all got that? The building from which Young issued this ruling was paid for with your tax dollars. Your tax dollars pay the salary of everyone who works in the building. You are the ones who pony up every tax dollar Maryland lawmakers hose you for to fund what's laughingly called the juvenile justice system in this state.
From where I sit, that makes you entitled to know everything that goes on in a juvenile court hearing. Yes, and that includes the names of the juvenile offenders. You're entitled to know everything from their names to when a light bulb breaks to when a toilet backs up.
Why? Because you paid for the right to know.
Neither Young nor the attorneys for the Nine Little Dears are responsible for this; Young was only following Maryland law, one passed by do-gooder legislators who need some stern lessons about when to stop doing good. But I assure Young and the attorneys present that I have no interest whatsoever in the names of their clients.
I am interested in the name of the fourth victim on that MTA bus, one whom we know only as "elderly white guy."
We should thank Assistant State's Attorney Dawn Jones for reminding us that Kreager wasn't the only victim in the attack.
"This involves a brutal attack on three victims," Jones told Young in arguing why the respondents should remain under home detention. Jones mentioned Kreager, her boyfriend, Troy Ennis, and the bus driver.
The "elderly white guy" is the man the bus driver was trying to protect; both also were attacked. But you've read or heard little about either in subsequent news reports. In several news articles, defense attorneys have focused their attention on Kreager, who they say provoked the attack by spitting on and punching one of the accused girls.
A couple of attorneys tried that tactic yesterday, but Young put the kibosh on it pretty quickly.
No one seems to know who the elderly white guy is. But one thing is certain.
That's one name defense lawyers in this case really don't want the media to release.
greg.kane@baltsun.com
