From the UTU Newswire:

---

[www.utu.org]

Amtrak engineer testifies on attack

SACRAMENTO - An Amtrak engineer told jurors Tuesday (Oct. 14) that an altercation with a group of teenagers on the railroad tracks in West Sacramento quickly escalated to a vicious group attack that left him pleading for his life, the Bee reports.

"I told 'em not to kill me," Jacob Keating testified during the first day of trial for five young men accused of attempted murder and a dozen other crimes, including gang enhancements.

Prosecutors say the defendants are all members of the Broderick Boys street gang.

Keating, 36, admitted he threw the first punch in the incident but insisted it was in self-defense. He said he still suffers back pain, headaches and depression from the beating he endured on the night of April 16, 2007.

The teens kicked and punched him, smashed a vodka bottle over his head and delivered a glancing blow with a fire extinguisher, he said.

The engineer told jurors in the Woodland courtroom that he could feel the blood pouring down his face and smell the vodka during the attack.

On trial in Yolo Superior Court are Pauliton Nunes, 20; Daniel Bonge, 19; Austen Nunes, 18; Robert Reynolds, 17; and Orlando Ramos, 16.

In their opening statements, defense lawyers said it was Keating who started the fight and the teens, ages 14 to 18 at the time, who were forced to defend themselves from attack by the train's crew members.

The attorneys portrayed the teens as a group of friends who had stolen beer from a local market and were swapping stories and laughing while drinking near the railroad tracks.

"They were kicking back," said Bonge's lawyer, Sally Fredericksen.

When a train came by, one or two of them threw stones at it, defense lawyers said.

The engineer brought the train to a screeching halt, jumped out shouting obscenities and then repeatedly punched one of the young men in the face, according to defense lawyers.

Two other members of the train crew joined in the fight, and the other teens jumped in to help their friends, the lawyers said.

Defense attorney Jeff Raven told jurors it was "a melee where kids were defending their friends rather than being the initial aggressors."

"They threw a rock at the wrong train, the wrong engineer, who came out to settle this himself," Raven said.

Deputy District Attorney Jay Linden – who argued for the controversial anti-gang injunction against the Broderick Boys in West Sacramento – offered a different version of events.

Linden told jurors the Sacramento-bound Amtrak train, with 27 passengers aboard, was traveling slowly as it neared the I Street Bridge.

Keating saw someone standing on the tracks waving his arms and brought the train to a halt, the prosecutor said. The engineer got out and told a group of teenage boys to get off the tracks.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a person approaching him with a raised fist and a rock, the prosecutor said.

The engineer hit first, punching the man he thought was about to attack him, Linden said.

Other teens joined in, and the train's conductor emptied a fire extinguisher at the brawling group, the prosecutor told jurors.

Keating managed to get back to the train, he said, but then realized that his conductor and a student engineer were in trouble. He returned to the scuffle as the other crew members escaped.

That left Keating alone with five attackers, Linden said. They hit him with the vodka bottle and fire extinguisher and then demanded his wallet and cell phone, the prosecutor told jurors.

Linden showed photographs of the teens making gestures, which he said were gang signs associated with the Broderick Boys and Norteños.

Keating's testimony is expected to continue today before Judge Timothy Fall.

(This item appeared Oct. 15, 2008, in the Sacramento Bee.)