WARREN - Back on the witness stand for a second day, MacKenzie Goranitis told a jury Tuesday that the more serious of her sexual assault allegations against an older male student riding the bus with her in 2006 weren't included in a written statement she gave to her principal.
The 17-year-old Champion High School senior said the accusations about the ninth-grade hearing-impaired boy forcing her to perform oral sex on him for five days in a row when she was in sixth grade were only told to her then-middle school principal Mary Walker.
''I told her about that. She made me write down six things I remembered,'' said Goranitis, who is also hearing impaired.
The allegations surfaced three months after the alleged acts occurred in November of 2006 and after Goranitis confided in a friend and classmate MacKenzie Kiser.
Pressed by attorney David Engler, who represents Community Bus Service, on why she only told of the older student trying to kiss her and both students then showing each other their ''private areas'' on the school bus, MacKenzie said she has tried to block out parts of the episodes in her past.
''But nowhere in the statements does it mention the oral sex,'' Engler said, questioning why the statement didn't match her direct testimony from Monday.
And testimony from Walker didn't clarify the accusations either. The now-high school principal said she didn't recall much of the 6-year-old investigation. Reading through her own notes, Walker said part of the sexual contact appeared to occur outside of the bus.
Champion police officer Daniel P. Wasko Jr. said a lot of his investigation involved hearsay statements and was turned over to Children Services investigators.
It's believed the boy being accused was never charged criminally and he could be called to testify in the case as early as today.
The Goranitis family is suing Community Bus Service, claiming a driver and an aide on the vehicle should have monitored and prevented any sexual contact between the two students, who were bused to the same school for a hearing-impaired curriculum. The lawsuit was filed in 2009.
The family is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, claiming CBS failed to properly train the two employees, who were watching MacKenzie, the teenage boy and another student confined to a wheelchair.
The lawsuit states that the attacks occurred when the wheelchair-bound student was taken off the bus on a lift - a period of time that a CBS investigation said had to occur within 15 to 30 seconds.
Bus driver Linda Lynch and aide, Don Rhoads, both said they observed nothing out of the ordinary while they monitored the bus during the five-day time frame spelled out in the suit being heard by Judge W. Wyatt McKay.
Kathy Baltes, regional director of operations for CBS, told the Goranitis family attorney Andrew Goldwasser that she was unable to retrieve medical, performance and qualifications files for Lynch and Rhoads.
Baltes also said that no video of the interior of the bus exists.
Goldwasser has made a point of saying CBS improperly contracted with Buckeye Transportation Services during the period.
But CBS president and CEO Terrence Thomas said a law firm for the company designed a contract between the two companies to name Buckeye as a Human Resources provider for CBS.
He said it saves the company money in terms of workers' compensation and health insurance premiums.
''We have established performance standards that exceed state law, Thomas said, explaining that Buckeye carried out the training that was designed by CBS and the Trumbull Education Service Center.