The woman who swung open the door of her car and caused a bicyclist to swerve fatally into the path of a city bus was found guilty yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
Krystal Francis, 25, was convicted of driving with a suspended license before the September 2010 incident that cost cyclist Jasmine Herron her life.
Defense lawyer Sydney Peck argued that there was no proof that Francis knew her license was suspended.
“Knowledge of the suspension is an element of the crime,” she argued during summation.
Francis maintained she was not driving the car, but jurors sitting on the weeklong trial were convinced by a police detective that she told him she had been driving.
Prosecutor Nora Cronin told jurors that there was “no other reasonable view of the incident” except that Francis drove the car from her Staten Island home and parked it on Atlantic Avenue in Prospect Heights just before the accident.
Herron’s mother, Wendy Clouse, said through her lawyer, Bernard Chambers, that she felt “vindicated the jury found her [Francis] guilty.” But, she added, “It won’t bring my daughter back,” Chambers related.
“She was guilty because it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” one juror said.