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Thursday May 15, 2008

Spring in St. Louis follow-up

Posted by: Gabe Hartwig at 6:50PM CST on May 15, 2008

In response to my earlier entry, my friend Heidi writes:

I'd say to also be careful when you give them that bottled water. I had the pleasure of writing this headline last month:

She gave him burger; he gave her beating

By CHRIS ECHEGARAY
Staff Writer

A homeless man accused of beating a woman who offered him a hamburger will face a grand jury after a ruling Friday.

The case, as explained in court, started when Fran MacLaren went to a Nolensville Road McDonald's for a late lunch on Monday. The homeless man, David Craig, 41, was outside of the fast-food chain after being told to leave a nearby liquor store.

MacLaren gave Craig the cheeseburger as he was lying down in a parking spot outside the restaurant. Craig shouted he didn't want the burger, just money and threw the burger at MacLaren, she testified in court today.

"I told him he was an ungrateful bastard," she testified.

Craig went after her, MacLaren testified, and she pepper-sprayed him in the eyes.

Enraged, Craig went after her and rammed her over a 4-foot retaining wall, she said, striking her repeatedly. She testified that he broke her nose, fractured her wrist and cheekbone and cracked a rib. She also injured her knee.

She limped into the McDonald's. She was later locked out of the restaurant, she said.

During her testimony, things got testy between Craig's court-appointed lawyer and MacLaren. Public Defender Mary-Kathryn Harcombe asked whether MacLaren had been drinking and if she was drunk during the attack and whether she had really tried to avoid the attack.

Judge Casey Moreland found probable cause and Craig will face a grand jury.

The judge then ordered Harcombe out of the courtroom. Harcombe declined to comment about her removal.

Craig is being held on $75,000 bond.

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