Ex-security worker gets diversion for pushing MATA passenger off bus
A former security guard contracted to work at a Memphis Area Transit Authority station was sentenced Friday to three years of diversion for the 2014 assault of bus passenger James “Semaj” Gray, who entered into a coma and died months later.
Adicus Mitchell, 52, apologized Friday to the victim’s family and friends, as well as his own.
“My life has been turned upside down,” he said in asking for mercy from the judge.
For diversion, charges are dismissed and the record expunged if the defendant pays court costs and follows the conditions set by the judge. Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee ordered an anger management program, curfew, GPS monitoring, community service and that Mitchell maintain employment.
Gray was unconscious when he arrived at Regional Medical Center on May 6, 2014, according to court documents. The formerly homeless man’s age has been cited as between 69 and 71 years old.
A witness to the assault, Shretha Woodley, said she heard the security guard tell Gray to “get off the bus,” and “when the victim did not get off the bus in a timely manner, (the guard) pushed (Gray) in the chest real hard off the bus causing him to fall on the concrete face first,” according to an affidavit.
Coffee said he was reluctantly placing Mitchell on diversion, and he does not condone Mitchell’s actions “at all.”
Mitchell, who had no criminal record, pleaded guilty in March to aggravated assault involving the serious injury of Gray, a crime that allows for diversion.
“This is a law I firmly have some disagreements with,” Coffee said.
A charge of aggravated assault resulting in Gray’s death was dismissed. That charge, which is not eligible for diversion, would have carried a sentence of