A New York jury, on Monday, found an Occupy Wall Street protestor guilty of assaulting a police officer during the 2012 protests at New York City’s Zuccotti Park. The trial, the New York Times reports, had become a “rallying point for many Occupy Wall Street activists.”
Here’s more from the Times:
A jury of eight women and four men found that the protester, Cecily McMillan, 25, was still responsible for assaulting the officer, rejecting her contention that she had reacted instinctively when he grabbed her breast during a protest on St. Patrick’s Day. Ms. McMillan had said she could not distinctly recall what happened amid the chaos of the night… Ms. McMillan was arrested on March 17, 2012, the night hundreds of people gathered to observe the founding of the Occupy Wall Street movement six months earlier. The police swept through the park in Lower Manhattan, carrying out scores of protesters, many of whom locked arms, went limp and refused to move. The central question facing jurors was whether Ms. McMillan intentionally elbowed the officer, Grantley Bovell, in the right eye while trying to escape him as prosecutors charged, or reacted reflexively after the officer grabbed her right breast, as she maintained.
The judge in the case ordered McMillan, who faces up to seven years in prison, to be held in jail until she is sentenced in two weeks time, Reuters reports.
