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Woman Who Steps Off CTA Bus Into Puddle Punches Driver in Face: Prosecutors

By Erica Demarest | February 11, 2015 5:38am
 Chantella Bailey, 41, was charged with felony aggravated battery to a transit employee.
Chantella Bailey, 41, was charged with felony aggravated battery to a transit employee.
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Flickr/zolk; Chicago Police Department

COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A 41-year-old woman who stepped in a puddle when getting off a CTA bus this week dragged the driver into the street and punched her in the face, prosecutors said.

Chantella Bailey became enraged after stepping in the puddle at 63rd and Wentworth. At first, she stood in front of the bus "throwing a tantrum, essentially," Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said during a brief bond hearing.

Then she got back on the bus and attacked the driver.

It happened about 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Bailey saw a large puddle and asked the driver, a West Englewood woman, to move the bus, Scaduto said.

The driver obliged, but Bailey still stepped in the puddle and became "irate," she added.

Bailey stood in front of the bus, blocking its path, and tried to hit the driver through her window, prosecutors said.

Several passengers tried to intervene, Scaduto said, but Bailey eventually pushed past them, got back on the bus and lunged at the driver, who was seated behind a partition.

At some point, prosecutors said, the partition opened, and Bailey grabbed the driver, pulled her off the bus and began punching her in the face.

Police arrested Bailey a short time later as she boarded a Red Line train a few feet away in the 200 block of West 63rd Street, according to a police report. Bailey told police "I was in the wrong" and admitted to striking the driver, the report said.

The driver was treated and released from St. Bernard Hospital for cuts and abrasions, court records show.

Bailey, of the 11000 block of South Vernon Avenue in Roseland, was charged with felony aggravated battery to a transit employee.

Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered her held in lieu of $30,000 bond.

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