By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black newspapers
Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Shidea N. Lane (pictured), the young Black woman who made national news last year for getting uppercut, choked, and thrown from a Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus by since fired bus driver Artis Hughes, will plead no contest tomorrow to misdemeanor disorderly conduct before Shaker Hts Municipal Court Judge K. J Montgomery, her lawyer Attorney Dale Friedland told Cleveland Urban News.Com Monday afternoon.
Watch the video of the horrendous bus episode at (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
"Shidea will plead no contest and we hope the judge will find her not guilty," said Friedland, who added that Montgomery and Beachwood Prosecutor Thomas Greve had rejected his request for probation before judgment without a criminal record, though Lane, who is Black, has no prior record and does qualify like her White counterparts.
"This is an issue of poverty and there are professional ways to deal with conflict on RTA buses, and a man with a big fist against a woman with a small jaw could spell serious injury, said Valerie Robinson, 76, a member of the Imperial Women and Stop Targeting Ohio's poor, and a retired Cleveland schools teacher. "Outrageous violence against women is egregious and absolutely unnecessary."
Robinson said that she will attend the hearing tomorrow to support Lane on behalf of Imperial Women, a greater Cleveland grassroots organizationl.
Imperial Women are calling for probation before judgment, which stops a criminal record, or a not guilty finding.
Traffic and misdemeanor cases and some civil lawsuits relative to the City of Beachwood are heard in Shaker Hts Municipal Court.
Lane, 25, faces a maximum $250 fine and 30 days in jail.
Hughes, 59, was charged with misdemeanor assault for his attack on Lane following a bus altercation on Sept. 18 and pleaded no contest on April 2, though Montgomery found him guilty and set sentencing for a later date. He faces up to six months in jail and a maximum $1,000 fine.
The incident at issue, a divisive one to say the least, occurred on the border of Cleveland and Beachwood, Oh. and went viral because of a cell phone video that hit Youtube.com.
Friedland said that Hughes repeatedly called Lane a bitch during the argument that led to Hughes ultimately punching Lane in the face before he literally tossed her off the bus on to the curb.
When Hughes was fired by RTA its spokesman said he violated RTA rules, regulations and policies, and that his attack on Lane "was not in self defense."
Hughes claims that Lane spat on him and pushed him, allegations that both Lane and Friedland have publicly denied. A single and impoverished mother, Lane said that she was reaching for her fare when Hughes got upset saying she was trying to ride free and began taunting her before his passengers.
Greve is the Beachwood prosecutor under law director Margaret Anne Cannon, who works for the City of Cleveland and the Cleveland Municipal School District by defending civil cases filed against the entities through her outside law firm.
Cannon was fired as Shaker Hts law director and has been accused of harassing Blacks that bring discrimination law suits against the City of Cleveland and the schools through malicious prosecutions by the cities of Shaker Hts . and Beachwood, both upper middle class predominantly White suburbs of Cleveland.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who also controls the schools under state law, appoints members of the RTA Board.
