A woman who was severely beaten last year on a city bus told a juvenile court judge yesterday that she could identify only one of the teens accused of attacking her over an empty seat.
Nine students at Robert Poole Middle School have been accused of beating Sarah Kreager, 26, and her boyfriend, Troy Ennis, aboard a bus in Hampden in December.
One student has admitted her role in the attack, and cases against five began yesterday after more than a month of motions. Cases against the other three alleged assailants have been delayed and could be dismissed, according to court records.
Kreager, the first witness, said that 20 to 30 students poured out of the bus, many of them advancing on her. But in photo arrays viewed weeks after the attack, Kreager said she could only identify with "100 percent confidence" the girl she says started it all: Nakita McDaniels.
The Sun does not publish names of juveniles accused of crimes. But McDaniels, 15, filed public countercharges against Kreager, which prosecutors declined to pursue.
Kreager said that she never got a look at the face of the boy who later kicked her in the face because she was balled up in the gutter, trying to protect her body from the attack. She was sure, she said, that the boy was wearing a green jacket and butter-colored boots.
"There's no reliable ID; no photo ID," defense attorney Margaret Desonier, who is representing the boy accused of kicking Kreager, said in her opening statement. "The state hangs its case [against my client] on the color of a generic jacket. `Green' does not mean guilty."
On the witness stand yesterday, Kreager tried to reconcile her statements to a television reporter a day or two after the attack - when she said she could identify all of her assailants - with the outcome of the photo arrays.
"The interview with Fox 45 - that was 24 to 48 hours later, and it was much more fresh in my mind; the photo arrays were a few weeks later," Kreager said.
She said she couldn't point out McDaniels in the courtroom because she couldn't see that far. About 30 feet separated them. She has previously said that the attack left her with blurred vision.
Kreager described the attack in detail yesterday. She testified that McDaniels told her the seat she was sitting in was taken and then threatened to move her when she didn't get up. Kreager said she moved seconds later to avoid a confrontation and went to stand with Ennis by the rear door of the bus.
