Lawsuit: BART failed to protect woman pushed to her death in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Corazon Dandan was waiting for a BART train at the Powell Street station in San Francisco when she was pushed to her death in the summer of 2024. Now her family is taking legal action against Bay Area Rapid Transit District demanding that the public transit system improve safety for all riders.

On Tuesday, attorneys representing Dandan's nephew and six siblings slapped BART with a wrongful death lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court. The suit claims that the Bay Area's largest public transit system has a "long history of violent deaths and assaults on BART platforms and tracks." BART police officers fail to remove mentally unstable criminals from stations, and the agency "enables horrific crimes to continue on platforms and trains," according to attorneys with the law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy.

A BART spokesperson declined to comment about the lawsuit on Wednesday.

On the night of July 1, 2024, Dandan was working at a hotel in Union Square. After she left work, she went to the Power Street station to catch a train home to Daly City.

Dandan, 74, was pushed by Trevor Belmont, aka "Hoak Taing," into the path of an oncoming train, according to police and attorneys. "Corazon’s head struck the oncoming train, and she fell backwards onto the platform. She suffered and died," the lawsuit states.

Belmont was a repeat fare evader and sexual predator who had previously been ordered by a judge to stay away from BART stations, according to the suit. The 49-year-old homeless man is currently in jail and charged with murder.

"This lawlessness has to stop. BART has long been on notice about the need for improved safety and protection," said attorney Nanci Nishimura.

Dandan's family characterized her as a highly independent and driven woman. She worked two jobs for over 25 years. When she was far into retirement age, she continued working at the hotel as a phone operator and commuting into San Francisco.

"Corazon demonstrated incredible generosity in her life. Corazon helped to finance the education of many of her family members, including her beloved nephew Alvin. She assisted with the tuition and expenses of medical school, which enabled him to become an intensive care doctor," attorneys wrote.

Belmont's criminal history on BART

Belmont was arrested 27 times in multiple Bay Area counties, attorneys said.

In 2018, he was convicted for engaging in lewd conduct when he publicly exposed himself on a BART train near Oakland’s Lake Merritt. He allegedly told police officers that he struggled to control his "sexual urges," attorneys said. He was arrested again in 2018 after officers saw him swinging his fists at BART riders on the platform of the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station.

More violence, deaths on BART

The Dandan family's attorneys compiled a list of violent incidents that happened at BART stations both before and after Dandan's death. According to the lawsuit, some of those incidents include:

• On November 2, 2024, a man slashed a 54-year-old Asian woman on a BART train rolling into 24th Street station.
• On November 13, 2024, a man was found stabbed to death outside the Embarcadero BART station and the killer fled into the station. Johnathon Calvin Wright, 36, was later arrested by police.
• On July 22, 2018, three sisters, Nia, Letifah, and Tashiya Wilson, were attacked at MacArthur station in Oakland. Nia and Letifah were stabbed in the neck by a BART rider, John Lee Cowell. Eighteen-year-old Nia died on the platform. Cowell, who had an extensive history of mental illness, was convicted of murder.

• In March 2021, a woman was assaulted by a man while commuting on a BART train. At the Bay Fair station, a man followed her off the train, onto the platform, and pushed her towards the tracks. The victim was only three feet from the edge of the platform when she was pushed toward an electrified third rail. The woman was able to keep her balance and remain on the platform.
• On June 15, 2020, a man was pushed onto the tracks of downtown Berkeley's BART station as a train arrived at the platform. The victim was waiting for the train when he was shoved, unprovoked, onto the trackway five feet below. He avoided being hit by scrambling into a narrow crawl space between the platform and the train.

The lawsuit accuses BART officials of failing to take actions to make platforms safer in order to prevent people being pushed or falling onto the tracks.