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First, she said, she was struck by a woman she had never seen before, Iris Lynett Ortiz.
And then, she said, a man she had also never seen before, Todd James Cook, knocked her down, kicking her in the head and stomach.
When it was over, Tahyna Jimenez testified, she lay beaten and badly bruised on the pavement outside Empire Beauty School, 1801 Columbia Ave.
Within days of the assault, East Hempfield Township police arrested Ortiz and Cook, and charged each of them with aggravated assault, conspiracy and recklessly endangering another person.
On Wednesday, the two defendants — dressed in matching orange Lancaster County Prison jumpsuits, leg chains and handcuffs — were brought before District Judge David Brian for preliminary hearings.
Ortiz, 21, 215 Howard Ave., waived her right to a hearing and was returned to county prison, pending trial.
Cook, 21, 328 S. Ann St., was ordered to stand trial after a brief hearing, and then also was returned to county prison, pending trial.
Jimenez, 20, testified that the attack happened on the afternoon of Sept. 2, just following graduation at the beauty school. At the time, she was three months pregnant and a student at the beauty school.
Jimenez said she noticed the couple looking at her during the graduation event, but turned her back on them to go inside the school, when "the girl came from behind and hit me."
"I told her to get off me because I was pregnant," Jimenez said, and she hit the woman back.
But then, Jimenez said, the man also started hitting her, "saying don't touch his baby mother," referring to Ortiz.
Cook knocked her to the ground, Jimenez said, kicking her in the stomach and the head.
"I was covering my stomach," she said, demonstrating how she wrapped her arms around her pregnant belly, "and I remember looking at his brown boots."
"I never met him, seen him before," Jimenez said, looking at Cook as she answered a question from Assistant District Attorney Brian Chudzik.
Before defense attorney Christopher Lyden could begin questioning the witness, the judge asked Jimenez if "everything is OK with the baby."
She said yes, after a brief hospital stay followed by a month and a half of bed rest and continued doctor's care.
"Glad to hear it," Chudzik said.
Jimenez told Lyden that she was able to identify her assailants from pictures shown to her by Detective Tammy Marsh.
Marsh said at the time of the arrest that the attack appeared to be the result of "bad blood" between Jimenez and another person.
Although Cook and Ortiz "weren't the ones directly involved in the issue," Marsh said earlier, "it seems they took it upon themselves to act on behalf of another person or persons."
Marsh said there were several witnesses to the assault, including one woman who was punched in the face by Cook when she tried to intervene and help Jimenez.
Shortly after the attack, Marsh said, police broadcast a description of the two suspects and the vehicle they were driving.
From that, Marsh said, city police and local probation officials were able to identify Cook and Ortiz as possible suspects.
Within days, probation officers and sheriff's deputies located the pair and took them into custody.
