FeedsHearings set after fireworks attack
Two Westland residents will head to court next Thursday to determine whether or not they will face assault charges after allegedly attacking a woman at the Westland Summer Festival.
According to Lt. James Ridener of the Westland Police Department, 19-year-old Jennifer Nagle of Westland was on the festival grounds near the Bailey Recreation Center on July 4 because she planned to watch the fireworks. As the show began at about 10:17 p.m., however, Nagle accidentally bumped into another woman on the crowded fairground, according to police reports.
The woman, later identified as 20-year-old Joleen Kay Krueger of Westland, reportedly became confrontational. As the two spoke, a third woman—a friend of Krueger’s later identified as 17-year-old Nicole Leigh-Ann Harrington of Westland—became involved and the conflict escalated. According to Ridener, the victim later reported that Krueger beat her with her fists while Harrington stabbed her in the head, back, and hands. Police recovered the knife at the scene.
Help arrived after witnesses called 911. Nagle was transported to Garden City Hospital for treatment and has since been released. Krueger and Harrington were identified through phone tips to the police department and then picked out of a photo line-up by Nagle.
Both women were arrested on Friday afternoon on charges of assault with intent less than murder, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison if convicted, and felonious assault, which is punishable by up to four years in jail. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Krueger and Harrington are scheduled for a preliminary hearing in the courtroom of Judge C. Charles Bokos at the 18th District Court in Westland on July 20. The result of that hearing will determine whether or not the women will face trial in the incident.
