SKETCHES OF COURT: Jury favors defendants in bus accident trial
In this courtroom sketch, Hon. Loren Baily-Schiffman listens as defendants’ attorney Sheri Holland (standing), of the law firm White Fleischner & Fino, cross-examines the responding police officer in the motor vehicle accident trial Robertus Coleman v. MCIZ Corp., Go Bus LLC, and Chirrad Williams. Court officer Denise Kean is holding an evidentiary photo. At issue was the determination of liability.
Family and friends had only begun a day trip to the Poconos on a chartered Go Bus in March of 2013 when Williams, the operator, alleged that a cab suddenly cut him off at the intersection of 144th Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. Coleman, 68, was, at that moment, returning to her seat from the restroom. The short stop flung her violently forward as the bus lurched to a halt, and she was seriously injured when she landed by the driver’s seat. Coleman was represented by Michael Kuharski (at right), trial counsel to the law offices of Richard J. Katz.
Passengers testified that the bus had been speeding, though Williams maintained that he was slowing for a red light. Holland added that there were 30 traffic control signals in the 30 blocks’ distance crossed. Katz sought to impugn Williams’ testimony by noting that in the police accident report the bus was on the far side of the intersection.
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