Reports on bus arrest conflict

The woman, unable to post book bond, spent a weekend in jail.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Clara Livingston says she was arrested and hauled off a bus for not sitting in the back.
A Western Reserve Transit Authority bus driver, WRTA security officer and two city patrolmen have a different version of what happened.
The driver, in a WRTA incident report, said a woman got on his bus with a food cart and when he asked her to take the cart to the back or fold it up, she cursed at him and told him to take it to the rear if he wanted it to go there.
The driver called dispatch and asked for a security officer to come to the bus. The driver wrote she used the same foul language with the officer.
On Friday, Livingston, 54, of East Avondale Avenue, denied using any foul language. "I don't talk like that," she told The Vindicator.
She said she uses a "quad" cane and sat in the handicapped seat with the cart next to her, as she always does. She said the driver told her to sit in the back of the bus and she refused.
Neither WRTA nor police reports indicate that Livingston was using a cane.
Different story
The security officer, in his report, wrote that Livingston was asked several times to take the food cart to the back of the bus or get off the bus. He said she became belligerent, saying she didn't care if she goes to jail for disorderly conduct, she wasn't getting off the bus.
The security officer then called for police to come to the WRTA station on West Federal Street. It was around 7 p.m. July 16.
Patrolmen John Hull II and Robert Martini responded. They were told it was a "fight on the bus."
The driver relayed what happened to the officers, adding that WRTA policy prohibits carts blocking the aisles. Carts are supposed to go in the back.
The officers said in their report that they asked Livingston several times to get off the bus and she refused, saying, "You'll have to arrest me."
Livingston's account
Livingston said she's not a troublemaker and it was time for her to take a stand. She said that because she uses a cane she could not have walked home from the bus station.
She said she didn't want to sit in the back because there were four men there. "If I could avoid city buses, I would," she added.
Hull, in his report, said Livingston struggled when he tried to handcuff her and the WRTA security officer stepped in to assist. She was escorted off the bus with her grocery cart and taken to the Mahoning County jail, charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Because Livingston didn't have $300 (10 percent of the $3,000 book bond), she spent the weekend in jail. At arraignment Monday in municipal court, Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. set Livingston's bond at $500, allowing 10 percent to be paid, and she was able to get out of jail.
Livingston will be back in court Aug. 9 for a pretrial.
meade@vindy.com