The CTA’s trains, buses, and platforms are plastered with signs warning that anyone who batters a transit passenger or employee will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But the woman who allegedly stabbed a CTA worker in the neck at a Loop L station this week is only charged with a misdemeanor, according to court records.
Police said the 49-year-old transit worker accidentally sprayed water on a woman as he washed the State-Lake train platform around 10:44 p.m. Wednesday. The woman became upset and stabbed him in the neck with a knife, police said.
Doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital stitched the stab wound closed, according to police and prosecutors.
Twitter video shows the CTA worker being confronted by the woman moments before he was stabbed:
On Saturday, prosecutors charged the woman, 37-year-old Quinton Joiner, with misdemeanor battery.
During Joiner’s bond hearing, prosecutors said the CTA worker pushed Joiner back when she confronted him about spraying water toward her. Joiner then pulled out a knife and stabbed the worker in the right side of the neck, according to prosecutors.
CPD records show Joiner was originally arrested for felony aggravated battery of a transit worker, but that charged was reduced to a misdemeanor.
Joiner’s public defender argued that Joiner was not the “initial aggressor” because the transit worker allegedly sprayed her with water and pushed her.
Judge David Navarro set bail at $5,000. Joiner will need to post $500 to get out of jail on the charge. Navarro also ordered her held in lieu of $7,500 on warrants from Kankakee County and a local violation of probation warrant. She’ll need $750 to get out on those cases.
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