The man shown on video clinging to the hood of a moving school bus and shouting at the driver had no choice but to grab onto the bus, his lawyer argues.
Baltimore County Police arrested 68-year-old Leverne Doran on Thursday and charged him with disorderly conduct, obstructing a school bus driver and other charges, court records show. A video shows Doran clinging to the front of the bus, banging on the hood and yelling.
Doran's attorney, Steven Silverman, told The Baltimore Sun on Tuesday that Doran disputes the police account.
“Mr. Doran had no option other than to literally jump on the hood of the bus,” the lawyer, Steven Silverman, said. “The bus driver continued to drive 25 miles an hour down the street with Doran on the hood. It’s unconscionable to me. If anyone should be charged with a crime, it should be the bus driver.”
Doran was trying to tell the bus driver that a student on board the bus threw a bottle at his car, Silverman said.
“All [Doran] was doing was what any responsible adult would do, which is inform the bus driver that he’s got a juvenile delinquent in his care who’s throwing projectiles at motorists,” the attorney said.
The bus driver “was acting like Otto Mann from ‘The Simpsons,’” Silverman told the Sun.
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A police spokeswoman told WBAL that investigators are looking into Doran's claim that something was thrown out of the bus' window.
