The lawyer of Sarah Jane Comrie, the Manhattan hospital worker dubbed as 'Citi Bike Karen' after she was accused of taking a reserved Citi bike from a black teenager, has claimed that she had purchased the ride. Comrie was placed on leave after a video of the incident went viral on social media.
Comrie Claims to Book the Ride Twice
As reported earlier, the viral clip starts off with Comrie repeatedly screaming for help. "Please help me!" she yells before the teen points out to her, "this is not your bike."
"Get off me!" exclaims Comrie, who continues to struggle with the teen over the bike, before attempting snatching the teen's phone away.
"You're hurting my fetus. You're hurting my unborn child," she is heard saying.
In a statement issue to the New York Post, lawyer Justin Marino said that his client had rented the bike first. Providing the timestamped receipts of the purchased ride on May 12, Marino said that the video which went viral shows an incomplete interaction which did not include all the facts.
The outlet reported that the first receipt shows the bike being taken out before it was re-locked one minute later while the second receipt shows another bike being taken out a minute later from the same docking station. It was second bike which caused an altercation between Comrie and the boys.
'Citi Bike Karen' Was Stopped From Making Payment Again
Stating that the employee of NYC Health + Hospitals / Bellevue in New York City, is a six months pregnant, Marino said that after booking the ride following a 12-hour shift, the health worker was backing up the bike from docking station when she was approached by a group of five claiming the rented bike to be theirs.
"One or more individuals in that group physically pushed her bike (with her on it) back into the docking station, causing it to re-lock.One of the individuals then covered the bike's QR code, stopping her from paying for it again so she could leave," Marino told the outlet.
"In blocking the QR code, this individual's arm was touching my client's pregnant stomach, a condition of which she had made them aware," he added. "Throughout this time and for the remainder of the video, roughly five individuals were telling her to get off the bike and heckling her."
