According to court papers, Justine Adenekan had to have a portion of her left foot amputated after a bus ran it over. But eyewitness accounts backed the city’s claims that the accident may have been her fault as she was looking the wrong direction when she crossed the street. During her first attempt at a quick judgment in 2009, a judge wouldn’t rule, saying that a jury should determine the case’s outcome.
Not wanting to wait for a jury trial, Adenekan poured over the case again until she found evidence she thought proved she was in the middle of the street when the bus struck her.
This watershed “evidence” came in accident scene photos — taken after she was removed to the hospital — which show the bus that hit her in the middle of the street, as well as pictures of her blood-stained flip flops “close to, but before, the middle of the intersection.”
In a new set of court papers filed earlier this year, attorneys for Adenekan said the photos are “proof certain that [she] was not at all responsible for the accident.”
Since she was struck in the middle of the street, the fact that she was looking away from the bus was moot, since she couldn’t have done anything to change the outcome, Adenekan’s attorneys said.
Judge Robert J. Miller wasn’t moved by the new evidence, since Adenekan wasn’t in the photos.
The driver could have moved the bus a few feet after the accident, he noted in his findings.
The flip flops, Judge Miller added, “can be general indications of where [Adenekan] lay in the street, but are not conclusive as to the exact point in the crosswalk where she was hit.”
“The pooled blood does not indicate the point of impact, but rather where Adenekan lay bleeding, and it is unclear if she was moved by any of the gathered crowd or paramedics,” Judge Miller continued, leaving the case for a jury to decide.
See you in 2184
A serial rapist convicted of sexually assaulting three women in 2008 was sentenced to a 174 and one half to 178 years in prison on Sept. 8.
If he somehow survives the minimum, he’ll be 197 years old and the world will be a much different place when he gets out.
Erick Lewis, 23, was found guilty in August of rape in the first degree, robbery in the first degree, sex abuse and other crimes for his misdoings in Crown Heights beginning on Jan. 17, 2008, where he followed a woman into the laundry room of her apartment building and demanded oral sex.
About eight months later, Lewis added robbery to his portfolio, said prosecutors, who linked him to a sex assault in a second neighborhood building on Aug. 17 of that year. Police said Lewis pulled a gun on his victim inside a building elevator before raping and robbing her.
A month later, he grabbed a third woman in another nearby building elevator and again forced her to perform oral sex.
He was taken into custody a short time later, charged with the attempted sex assault, police said.
Evidence collected from the floor of the elevator used in the last attack connected him to the two earlier incidents, prosecutors alleged in court.
Last week’s sentencing surpassed all expectations — when he was convicted, prosecutors said he was facing just 160 years in jail.
