Occupy Wall Street Protester Cecily McMillian Could Get 7 Years in Prison
Occupy Wall Street protester Cecily McMillan, who was convicted May 5 of second-degree assault against a New York City Police officer, could face a sentence of seven years in prison Monday.
McMillian claimed that NYPD Officer Grantley Bovell grabbed her right breast from behind while being led out of Zuccotti Park on March 17, 2012. As a reflexive reaction, the 25-year-old elbowed the officer in the eye, according to Al Jazeera America.
Martin Stolar, one of McMillan's attorney in her legal team, said that they will appeal her conviction.
"As soon as the sentence is imposed, we plan to appeal," Stolar said. "The appellate process takes some time, but that's certainly something we plan to pursue. There are number of questions, a number of legal errors that we think the judge made."
McMillan's legal team has cited police brutality and maintains that she is the victim in the situation.
During the four-week trial, her attorneys showed photographs of McMillan's bruised right breast as well as a video of her convulsing on the pavement while handcuffed.
The video was met with criticism from Assistant District Attorney Erin Choi who implied that McMillan faked her injuries and said her convulsions were "the performance of a lifetime."
McMillan's other attorney Frank Coughlin said Choi's allegations are off base and without merit.
"Cecily is a 5-foot, 4-inch, 100-and-something pound female," Coughlin said. "Officer Bovell is 6-foot-something and 200-something-pound officer. And he is fuly capable of grabbing somebody and leaving a bruise. That's where her bruise came from.
Officer Bovell is also involved in an alternate case where he faces a federal lawsuit from another Occupy protester. Austin Guest claimed that Bovell allegedly slammed his head against the seats of a prison transport bus the same day of McMillan's incident.
In 2011, Bovell was indicted for being involved in ticket-fixing scheme.
Since the jury of eight women and four men convicted McMillan, some of them have publicly stated they were "shocked" that the felony conviction could result in a two-to-seven-year prison sentence.
Charles Woodard, juror number two, was one of the nine jurors who wrote a letter to Justice Ronald Zweibel urging him to be lenient in his sentencing decision.
"We would ask the court to consider probation with community service," Woodard wrote. "We feel the felony mark on Cecily's record is punishment enough for this case and that it serves no purpose to Cecily or to society to incarcerate her for any amount of time."
McMillan is currently being held at Rose M. Singer correctional facility on Riker's Island while she awaits her sentence hearing Monday, according to Al Jazeera.
Since the Occupy movement in New York, there have been 67 cases against the protesters that have gone to trail. McMillan is one of 56 individuals to have been convicted and 11 others were acquitted.