Bailed denied for man who kicked woman unto tracks on Red Line
Bail was denied Wednesday for a man accused of kicking a 23-year-old woman onto the tracks Tuesday while a CTA Red Line train was approaching.
The court hearing was broadcast on YouTube where the defendant was summoned as Donald Jackson though he was charged under an alias, Ashley Doss.
Prosecutors said shortly after 9:20 a.m. Tuesday, the woman was standing on the CTA platform in the 800 block of North State Street when Jackson kicked her in the back causing her to fall onto the tracks in front of an oncoming train. The conductor was able to stop the train and the victim moved off the tracks, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said Jackson called the woman an expletive, and told witnesses not to believe her as she yelled she was pushed onto the tracks. He told people she tried to commit suicide.
Prosecutors told the judge the woman barely missed the third rail during the fall.
Police watched video surveillance that showed the woman being kicked in the back by someone wearing all black and bright yellow socks, prosecutors said.
Jackson was located shortly after in a nearby Taco Bell restaurant. He was wearing bright yellow socks, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors laid out Jackson’s background that included previous batteries to strangers and a police officer. In one incident where he was convicted of battery, he kicked out a woman’s teeth in a Dunkin’ Donuts after she asked to buy him a doughnut, prosecutors said.
Matthew Shepard, a public defender representing Jackson, argued that his client would have been 14 at the time of that arrest, and pointed out Jackson was sentenced to a mental health facility where he was treated. He added the treatment was helpful as he hadn’t reoffended since 2011.
Shepard said when Jackson was asked how old his was, he told staff at the jail he was 50. According to court papers, Jackson was born in 1989.
In response, prosecutors said Jackson was 20 not 14, and Shepard responded that Jackson has used many aliases and ages over the years and is unfit for any court proceedings.
Jackson, a former U.S. Marine, was order held without bail, but the judge ordered an evaluation to determine his mental state.
