Teonna Monae Brown on Thursday pleaded
guilty in the beating of a Chrissy Lee Polis, a transgender woman.
Brown, 19, pleaded guilty to charges in
connection with the April assault on Polis, 22, at a McDonald's in
suburban Baltimore, Maryland, The Baltimore Sun reported.
The teenager is charged with one count
of first-degree assault and one hate crime count.
A 3-minute video allegedly showing
Polis being viciously kicked, punched and dragged by Brown and a
14-year-old girl went viral. In the video, one employee and a patron
attempt to intervene, but most of the witnesses stand idly by and
several men can be heard laughing in the background. Toward the end
of the video, Polis appears to suffer a seizure after one of the
suspects kicks her in the head.
The name of the second suspect charged
in the attack has not been released because the charges were filed in
juvenile court.
Prosecutors say they'll seek a prison
sentence for Brown of 10 years with five years suspended.
Brown's lawyer, Timothy Knepp, said his
client “has a great deal of remorse.”
The fight was prompted by Polis' use of
using a women's restroom.
“They said, 'That's a dude, that's a
dude and she's in the female bathroom,'” Polis told the paper.
“They spit in my face.”
“I knew they were taping me; I told
the guy to stop,” she added. “They didn't help me. They didn't
do nothing for me.”