"Her temper flares," Hankin said. "She goes from zero to 60 in a matter of seconds. ... She says it herself. She tells the court medical evaluator, `If I fight people, I really try to hurt someone.' She doesn't fight often, and this is according to the evaluator, but when she does, it's as though a switch turns on. She loses control."
Young agreed, saying that he has not "dealt with many people who I am convinced would kill. ... It does concern me that each of the serious assaults were group attacks on lone victims. Her anger is disproportionate to the situation."
Young also said that the testimony of Joyce King, who saw the students spill from the bus and continue the assault, weighed heavily in his decision. King lives at Chestnut Avenue and 33rd Street, where the bus -- on a special "school route" from Robert Poole -- stopped. King's daughter called 911 several times, describing the scene as a "riot."
"I actually wept when I heard the testimony of Mrs. King, when she said, `That's not a dog. That's a person. You're going to kill her,'" he said. "But for Miss King, this case would have been far more tragic. I believe the pack mentality kicked in."
Of the nine students accused initially, four were found involved -- the juvenile equivalent of guilty -- of first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and conspiracy in the attack on Kreager. They were also found involved in reckless endangerment in the attack on Ennis.
A fifth student was found involved for the reckless endangerment of Kreager and for second-degree assault and reckless endangerment against Ennis.
Cases against two were dropped yesterday, and the final case, which is also expected to be dropped, will be called at another time.
Attorneys for two of the students whose cases were dismissed announced yesterday that they intend to file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the bus driver, the Maryland Transit Administration and the city school system for removing their clients from school and revoking their bus privileges without "a hearing or due process."
One of those attorneys, Jay Ortis, said that if public buses are acting as school buses, drivers shouldn't pick up other passengers: "You don't see yellow buses stopping to pick up citizens on the street."
Young said that his comments on racial tensions in Baltimore -- in levels of hatred that "scare" him -- applied to all of the students' cases.
