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Woman sentenced to jail for spitting on bus driver

Port Moody woman gets no-contact order and can’t take a bus for a year
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A Port Moody woman has been sentenced to 14 days in jail and one year of probation for spitting on a bus driver.

Lakota Morningstar Kakakaway, 22, was convicted for assaulting a Coast Mountain Bus driver on a 97B line bus on June 22, 2016, the transit police said on Wednesday.

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Kakakaway appeared to be intoxicated when she got on a bus at the Lougheed Station loop.

She began swearing at the bus driver, who told her to stop and eventually to get off the bus at a stop just north of Austin Avenue in Coquitlam. She spat at the bus driver’s face and left the area in a taxi.

An investigation revealed Kakakaway’s identity based on a police incident she had been involved in earlier that day. She was charged and convicted of assault in February.

Her probation conditions, set last week, include a ban on contact with her victim and rides on any Coast Mountain Bus Company vehicle for one year.

In his sentencing decision, the judge pointed to the nature of the assault, including the disrespect shown and the probability of saliva transmitting serious diseases.

Transit police say 79 bus drivers have been assaulted so far this year.


@katslepian

katya.slepian@bpdigital.ca

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