McDonald's Beating Suspect Held Without Bail

A judge ordered the woman charged in the videotaped McDonalds beating to be held without bail.

NBC4's sister station WBAL reported that bail was denied for 18-year-old Teonna Brown, who is being held on a charge of first-degree felony assault.  The victim, Chrissy Lee Polis, identifies herself as transgender.

A 14-year-old girl has also been charged in the attack.

The woman who stepped in to break up the attack, which was captured on video by a McDonalds worker, told her story in a rally on Monday night.

Polis can be seen getting kicked, punched, and dragged in the cellphone video that was posted online.  Vicki Thomas, 55, said that after initially hanging back, she decided to step in to help.

"When they started really hurting her, to the point where I thought she was going to die, that's when I decided that someone needed to do something."  She said although several others were present, including the restaurant's employees, nobody else offered the beating victim assistance.

According to police documents, Thoms was punched in the eye while trying to break up the fight.  "She hit me like a man would hit, and she was 14-years-old," Thoms said.  She said that although the video is short, the attack went on for ten minutes. 

Thoms recounted an exchange she had with an employee at the McDonalds that night to WBAL: "The one employee there - I think it was the manager - said to me, 'You do know that's not a woman.  That's a transvestite.'  And I said, 'So?  She's human."

Thoms can be seen in the video trying to pull the women off Polis.

Around 200 showed up for a rally in support of Polis on Monday evening, at the site of the attack.  The McDonalds restaurant closed as a show of support with the rally.

Prosecutors said they were considering a hate crime charge in the case.

The video can be seen here.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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