Woman charged in road rage attack that hurt man; 2nd woman sought
By Keiko Morris
STAFF WRITER
January 22, 2004
There were words. There were gestures, and then, police said, she pulled out an aluminum bat.
Nassau police arrested Jasmine Thomas, a 24-year-old teaching assistant, who, with another woman, allegedly decided to settle a traffic dispute with a baseball bat. They wound up seriously injuring a 50-year-old mechanic in Valley Stream Tuesday afternoon after beating him with the bat and hitting him with Thomas' car.
Detectives found Thomas by tracking a license plate the victim ripped off the car she was driving, police said yesterday. Police are still looking for the other woman, and the bat has not been recovered.
Thomas, of 5000 Hempstead Tpke. in Farmingdale, and the other woman were making a U-turn on Karlston Place as they were heading to a bank at about 2 p.m. when the argument with the other driver began, police said. As Thomas, who was driving the 1996 Honda Civic, backed up, she may have hit the 1993 Ford Explorer driven by a Valley Stream man, whose name police are withholding until the second suspect is apprehended.
Words were exchanged and both drivers got out of their cars, Fifth Squad Det. Lt. Robert Cuerbo said. Thomas had an aluminum bat in her hand, he said.
She began to chase the man, Cuerbo said, and dropped the bat in her pursuit. At that point, the passenger in Thomas' car got out, picked up the bat and gave chase herself, he said.
While that woman went after the victim, Thomas took the keys from the man's SUV and brought them back to her car, Cuerbo said. The victim, attempting to retrieve his keys, jumped in the passenger side of Thomas' car and, as he was reaching over to get the keys, Thomas' passenger struck him several times in the head with the bat.
As the beating continued, Thomas threw the victim's keys in front of the Honda. The man managed to run to the front of the car, but as he bent to pick up his keys, Thomas drove into him, hitting his hip and knocking him down, Cuerbo said. As he lay on the ground, the mechanic managed to yank off the license plate from the Honda and move out of the way before Thomas could strike him again, Cuerbo said.
"It's unclear whether she [Thomas] struck him with the bat," said Cuerbo, who at a news conference at police headquarters in Mineola yesterday held up the license plate, which was dotted with blood. But, he added, detectives know that the unidentified woman and Thomas were acting together in the assault and that Thomas did hit the other driver with the car.
The victim was taken to Franklin Hospital Medical Center in Valley Stream with multiple bruises and cuts to his head, arms and legs, police said. Hospital officials said he declined to be interviewed and that he was in stable condition.
Aided by the license plate, detectives were able to find Thomas and arrest her Tuesday at 7:20 p.m. She was charged with second-degree assault, leaving the scene of an accident with injury and leaving the scene of an accident without reporting it.
She was arraigned yesterday in First District Court in Hempstead, where she was ordered held in lieu of $5,000 cash.
Thomas works as a teaching assistant at New Frontier Montessori School in Hempstead. The school's director declined to comment. Thomas had a prior conviction in 1996 for harassment, for which she was fined $50 and given a conditional release, court records show. She also has a 2002 conviction for operating a vehicle without a license, a violation, according to state motor vehicle records.
Thomas' family could not be reached yesterday. But one neighbor, who lives on the same floor of her Farmingdale apartment, where Thomas has lived for three or four months, said he was stunned to learn she had been arrested.
"She's a very quiet girl, very peaceful, pleasant," said Jerome Knight, 48, a retired Long Island Rail Road conductor.
"I can't believe that was her," he added. "She must have been provoked or something must have happened."
Police yesterday were still searching for Thomas' acquaintance, who, they said, caused the most severe injuries to the victim.
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