Wincing in pain, a black-and-blue bus driver recalled being sucker-punched and brutally beaten after telling a 17-year-old her Chihuahua wasn't allowed on board.
Marlene Bien-Aime, 48, had turned her attention away from the disgruntled teenager at the front of the bus and faced the windshield when the brutal attack began Tuesday night, she said outside Bronx Criminal Court.
"When I turned my head, that's when she hit me," Bien-Aime said. "She punched me in my eyes while I was sitting. She hit me several times in my eyes. She hit me all over my head and on my back."
As the blows landed, Bien-Aime struggled to remove her seat belt, she said. Good Samaritans managed to restrain the teenager - identified by police as Steangeli Medina - but Medina soon broke free.
She punched Bien-Aime some more and dragged her down the steps and off the bus - by her hair, the driver said.
"I rolled over and fell," Bien-Aime said. "She was on top of me and she kept hitting me in the head. She was hitting me, hitting me, pulling my hair."
Bien-Aime spoke briefly before going into the courthouse, where prosecutors are considering felony assault charges against Medina.
Removing her sunglasses, Bien-Aime revealed a badly swollen black eye. She also showed a large bruise on her upper left arm. She said her nose was broken and that she suffered from head and neck pain.
Carrying a Chihuahua, Medina boarded the Bx9 bus on Fordham Road at Cambreleng Ave. in Belmont just before 6 p.m., police said. She became enraged when Bien-Aime said the pet had to be in a crate to travel.
"She said, 'I'm gonna hit you,'" Bien-Aime said.
The driver responded, "It's not me, it's MTA."
Seconds later, the first punch was thrown, said Bien-Aime, who spent Wednesday night at St. Barnabas Hospital.
"I was simply doing my job yesterday," Bien-Aime said.
Medina, a student at Richard R. Green High School in Manhattan, was released on her own recognizance last night after her arraignment on charges of assault, menacing and harassment.The dog was returned to her family.
Union officials said the assault was further proof protective barriers are needed on buses, an initiative they have been calling for since Brooklyn bus driver Edwin Thomas, 46, was fatally knifed by a passenger in 2008.
"The MTA is still dragging its feet on the implementation of protective shields for New York City bus operators," said Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen.
With Kevin Deutsch
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/06/22/2011-06-22_bus_driver_recalls_horror_of_beating_at_the_hands_of_17yearold_girl_whose_dog_no.html#ixzz1Q5qwPc2Z
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