Woman gets five years in savage beating of transgender woman in McDonald's



A woman who confessed to her role in a vicious beating of a transgender woman in a Maryland McDonald's has been sentenced to five years in jail.

Teonna Brown, 19, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault and a hate crime and was sentenced in Maryland court on Tuesday.

Guilty: Teonna Monae Brown has pleaded guilty to the vicious beating

The April beating at the McDonald's in Rosedale attracted national attention after a video of the attack was posted online.



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A girl who was 14 at the time of the attack admitted her role in juvenile court and was committed to a detention facility.



State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger says the beating was one of the worst he has seen, especially because surveillance video revealed that over the course of 15 minutes, the attackers left and came back to beat the woman again.



Video of Brown's beating of 22-year-old Chrissy Polis - who had a seizure during the attack - drew national condemnation after it went viral online.

Brown was arrested after her own sister turned her in, telling police she and her alleged accomplice, a 14-year-old girl, had admitted to the attack.

During the beating, worker Vernon Hackett filmed the entire attack and later posted it online, where it attacked hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Speaking shortly after the attack, Miss Polis said she was afraid to go outside.

She said: 'They just hurt me really bad, and I'm afraid to go outside now because of stuff like this.'

Shocking: Chrissy Polis was brutally beaten to the point where she had a seizure Brutal: The girl suffers blow after blow as a staff member, right, ducks away



In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, she said the violence began after she had used the ladies' restroom in the McDonald's.

She said of her attackers: 'They just seemed like they wanted to pick a fight that night.'

She said she was approached by one of the girls, who accused her of 'looking at my man.'

When Miss Polis insisted that she was not even aware of the girl's partner, the physical abuse began with the girl spitting in her face.

Traumatised: Transgender woman Chrissy Lee Polis, 22, said she was too scared to go outside after the April 18 attack at a Baltimore County McDonald's

The attack prompted Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley pledged to seek greater protections for transgender people.

She said: 'She started ripping my hair, throwing me on the floor, kicking me in my face.

'I got up and tried to hit the girl. I had her in a corner, to try to get her off me, and the other girl came up and started kicking me in my face, punching me in my nose, ripping my earring out of my earlobes.'

Warning: Video contains graphic images and profanity







