TTC row ends in charges, lawsuit
Bus altercation leads to claims of rudeness, choking and assault with empty coffee cup
October 25, 2009
Jim Rankin
It had been spitting all day – a cold April rain – on the day a bit of rudeness between a Toronto Transit Commission bus driver and a passenger escalated to name calling, an airborne empty Starbucks coffee cup and hands around a neck.
But even the 911 operator who took the call from another passenger aboard bus 7866, which was stopped at Coxwell and Eastwood Aves. on the afternoon of April 12, 2008, seemed taken aback by who it was – at one moment, at least – who was allegedly on the attack.
911: Ma'am, what's happening?
Caller: Well, he attacked a passenger on the bus, and ah ...
911: The driver did?
Moments later, the caller, sensing the operator's disbelief: I'm not kidding ... He went after her, grabbed her by the neck, thrust her around and now he's kicking everybody off the bus.
Toronto police that day put more stock in a different version of events, one more in line with what the driver later wrote up in a report to his bosses. Police charged Alice Evenson, a 41-year-old artist who'd never been in trouble with the law, with assault with a weapon – a criminal offence considered so serious it requires a mandatory DNA sample. The alleged weapon, seized at the scene, being the empty Starbucks paper cup.
The charge was later withdrawn at the request of a Crown attorney and Evenson is now suing the TTC and police, seeking $2.3 million in damages. The suit alleges driver Mark Lindsay called her a "loser," choked and dragged her, and that Toronto police officers John Aiken and Dennis Inniss failed to conduct a proper investigation.
Evenson's lawyer, Barry Swadron, believes this could be a case of "uniform affinity." He suggests police chose to believe the driver, a fellow city employee, over his client and the 911 caller. He also notes police did not interview more witnesses and didn't collect evidence that may have painted a better picture of what happened that day, including video that is now long erased.
In a recently filed statement of defence, the TTC denies the allegations and asserts that the driver was assaulted and then detained Evenson until police arrived. The driver's own account differs somewhat. He wrote in a report that pedestrians began to surround him and that he left Evenson and went inside the bus to await police.
The Star sought comment from Lindsay through a TTC spokesperson and a lawyer assigned to defend him, but none came, which is not unusual when a case is before the courts. Similarly, Aiken did not respond to a request for comment. Inniss declined to comment.
And, officially, neither the police nor the TTC offered any comment, both citing the fact that the case is now before the courts.
What follows is based on an interview with Evenson, police and TTC notes and records disclosed to Evenson in the criminal case (shared with the Star), allegations and counter allegations made in the lawsuit that have yet to be proven in court, and the 911 call, a recording of which was obtained by Swadron in a freedom-of-information request.
Evenson, who lives in the Beach, was on her way to have a laptop repaired that afternoon, and was unprepared and juggling a bag, an umbrella and a coffee when the bus pulled up. She boarded and sat near the driver and rummaged for some change, which took some time. As she went to pay, she alleges in her suit, she made eye contact with the driver, and for an unknown reason, he gave her a "cross look." She asked for a transfer, and in an "exaggerated and slow manner" delivered her one.
Having finished her coffee and arrived at her stop, she headed to the front door to leave and said, "Thank you." Lindsay, the driver, recalled in his notes that she said, "Bye," but both agree he did not respond in kind. In his notes, Lindsay says he was busy trying to park the bus at the stop due to an illegally parked car, and that passengers were starting to enter the bus.
Evenson turned and, according to her suit, said, "Thank you" again, and that the driver "gave her a very annoyed look."
Still no response.
What's your problem, Evenson then asked.
Evenson alleges the driver informed her in an "aggressive" manner that she was the problem and ordered her off the bus. She asked what she'd done wrong. "You're an a--hole," Evenson alleges was the reply. She says she then told him he could not speak to a passenger like that, to which he responded by calling her a "loser" and shouted that she was holding up the bus. Intending to file a complaint, she asked for his badge number, and the driver pointed to his bus number.
Lindsay, in his notes, tells a different version. He writes that her second goodbye was "sarcastic," that she asked what his problem was and he then informed her she was blocking the door and to get off. She asked for his name, and he sat there, "unresponding," he says in his notes, made an announcement that the bus was out of order, and told Evenson, "Ma'am, I am not going to argue with you, talk to the hand." He writes that it was she who then called him an "a--hole," and he in turn called her a "loser." Evenson said in an interview that she does not swear, and didn't on that day.
At least one would-be passenger was waiting to board and was growing impatient.
Evenson says in her suit that she decided it best to leave, was "confused and upset by the unfair and undignified treatment," and as she departed, tossed the empty coffee cup in frustration, but was "careful not to throw the cup in Lindsay's direction."
"Did you just try to throw a coffee cup at me?" the driver asked, according to Evenson's lawsuit. He then, the suit alleges, went after her and started to "choke" her. Evenson, the suit states, was "in fear of her life." She alleges she was dragged, that the driver twisted her right arm up behind her back toward her head, and in a nearby bank alcove, "snapped" her head off a wall and glass door.
Lindsay, in his notes, says the cup hit him between the eyes, and Evenson then left the bus. He writes that he went after her in order to detain her until police arrived, and "grabbed her from behind by her shoulder." Evenson struggled, he writes, and as he "started to pull" her back to the bus, some pedestrians "started to surround me" and one man became "aggressive." So, he states, he returned alone to the bus, closed the door and waited for police to arrive.
Evenson, too, waited for police. A female passenger, who did not know Evenson, made the 911 call.
Police spoke with three witnesses, including the 911 caller. One man told police the driver swore at Evenson, and that he saw the coffee cup hit either the driver or the steering wheel, but did not see her take aim at the driver. The man told police he saw the driver grab her from the bank alcove and was handling her "quite aggressively." A group of people formed and held the driver back, saying "you shouldn't hit a girl." That was the general sentiment of the people on the bus.
It didn't look like Evenson was intending to assault the driver, the man told police. It looked more like a frustrated person who "threw a piece of garbage."
Another woman, who had been waiting to board the bus, told police she heard Evenson swear at the driver, which Evenson says she did not do, and that she "whipped" the cup.
The witness did not see where the cup landed. Later, the witness saw the driver with his "hands on her ... on her shoulders and around her neck slightly." Evenson, this witness said, did not appear to be in distress.
The 911 caller, a woman, told police she believed the driver was "trying to really hurt her," and that Evenson looked "terrified."
In her suit, Evenson alleges the incident caused injuries to her throat, right bicep, arms and shoulders, and that she suffers from post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety.
There are pictures, taken by a neighbour, that show red marks on her neck, as well as one showing her umbrella, which is beyond repair.
