The case of a 17-year-old girl charged with assault in a stabbing on the SUNY Westchester campus last month will remain in the youth part of criminal court after a judge rejected her bid to have it transferred to Family Court.
Westchester Judge Sheralyn Pulver found that prosecutors had met their burden of establishing that the girl caused significant injury to a man who was not participating in the alleged assault, according to a transcript of the Oct. 8 hearing.
The Journal News/lohud is not naming the teenager because of her age. She turns 18 next month.
The stabbing occurred early in the afternoon of Sept. 16 on a grassy area outside the community college's student center. The girl was with 18-year-old Darryl Crawford when an argument with at
least one other man became physical.
Video played at the hearing by Assistant District Attorney Leigh Wellington showed Crawford pulling a knife from his pocket. The knife broke when it dropped to the ground and the girl picked up the blade and stabbed at an 18-year-old, striking him in the abdomen. He suffered a collapsed lung and a cut to the lung, requiring surgery and a three-day stay in the hospital.
Defense lawyer Pavel Williams argued that Raise the Age legislation suggested a presumption that adolescent offenders should have such cases removed to Family Court, which would automatically trigger no criminal record for the defendant.
He challenged the second prong of what the prosecution had to prove: that the man who was stabbed was not a participant in the crime.
He suggested the melee involved at least four people, including the man who was stabbed, and that additional knives may have been brandished.
"It is unclear, one, how many knives were present or used during this altercation and it is unclear who attacked who first," Williams said.
He said his client herself appeared to be stabbed, although the prosecution contends that she cut her hand when she picked up the blade and used it. Wellington said that the injured man could have been in the fight, just could not have been participating in the crime.
Pulver accepted the medical evidence that the injury was significant. She relied on the video to determine that only the one knife appeared to be used and the defendant was wielding it. She suggested that the injured man seemed to be trying to intervene and stop a fight so certainly was not participating in a crime.
Both the teenager and Crawford are charged with first-degree assault and free on bond. She is due back in court on Oct. 29. Crawford's case remains pending in Greenburgh Town Court.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Teen's assault case from college stabbing will remain in criminal court
