The suspect in the assault of the station manager at the Braddock Road Metro station skipped his arraignment Thursday morning (Oct. 31).
Alexandria Circuit Court Judge Rebecca J. Wade issued a bench warrant against Martinez Juan Robertson of Woodbridge for not appearing in court. Robertson was arrested by Metro Transit Police on the morning of Oct. 16 — two days after the incident — and charged with assault and battery, a misdemeanor.
Robertson posted a $3,000 unsecured bond and was released that same afternoon.
The station manager broke three ribs in the (Sunday) Oct. 13 incident. The manager, who has since not returned to work, was at the Alexandria courthouse in Old Town with members from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689.
The manager said Robertson was arguing with the on-duty station manager, and she was shocked when Robertson allegedly spat in her face.
“I never had no one do this in my face,” the manager said. “I was trying to assist another customer, and got assaulted. He then slammed me down to the ground and kneed me. The customer who I was helping, he pulled him off of me, and the guy ran out of station. Then I was carried away to the hospital with three broken ribs.”
Over the last nine years as station manager, the manager said she’s deescalated a number of altercations, but that she’d never been physically assaulted until that day.
She says Robertson should be banned from the Metro system.
“I have three broken ribs on my right side, and at times it can get very uncomfortable,” the manager said. “I know he’s still accessible to the Metro. He was back in the system the same day he was arrested. My colleagues have been reporting him upon seeing him.”
Standing outside the courthouse, Raymond Jackson, president of ATU Local 689, said lawmakers need to get tough on assaulting transit employees.
“If you assault a postal worker in this country, you get charged with a federal crime, but if you assault a transit worker in this country, you get to go home,” Jackson said. “We’re fed up.”
Next to Jackson was Bus driver Barry Wilson, who was suspended after striking a customer who spat on him in January. Wilson said violent customers need to be banned.
“If you don’t respect those that are there to do a job and make sure you get to and fro safely,” Wilson said, “then you have to be inconvenienced as well and be penalized to the highest penalty to make sure that you think twice about your actions.”
Jackson said that union members will now be attending court hearings for assault suspects.
“What you’re going to start seeing from transit workers, especially Local 689, is when you do something to one of us, all of us will show up,” he said. “And we’re going to ask the court system to discipline you and get you something harder than a slap on the wrist, because we’re tired of going home with broken ribs, black eyes … You’re not going to beat on us anymore.”
