LOS ANGELES (AP) – Jurors on Friday convicted a female Los Angeles police officer of felony assault for repeatedly kicking a handcuffed woman who later died.
The jury reached its verdict after two days of deliberations in the trial of Officer Mary O’Callaghan, 50. She pleaded not guilty to assaulting a civilian in the 2012 arrest of Alesia Thomas, 35.
Dressed in a black pantsuit, O’Callaghan wiped her face and appeared to be crying after the verdict was read.
Robert Rico, O’Callaghan’s attorney, said he plans to appeal and ask for a new trial.
“I firmly believe the evidence presented by the prosecution did not show her force was unreasonable or unnecessary,” he said.
Officers went to arrest Thomas at her home after she left her two children outside a police station.
A dashboard camera in a police cruiser captured O’Callaghan kicking the handcuffed Thomas in the backseat seven times in the groin, abdomen and upper thigh, prosecutors said. Thomas lost consciousness and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
A report by the Police Commission said the 228-pound Thomas resisted arrest.
O’Callaghan’s attorney noted his client has an exemplary record, and no complaints against her have been upheld in her 19 years on the force.
O’Callaghan was charged with assault under color of authority, but was not charged in Thomas’ death. She has been relieved of duty without pay pending an administrative hearing.
An autopsy found Thomas had cocaine in her system, but the cause of death was listed as undetermined because the struggle couldn’t be excluded as a contributing factor. There were no internal injuries or bruising.
O’Callaghan sniffed and wiped her face after the verdict was read by the jury of 11 women and a man. She was handcuffed in her seat and remanded to the custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department without bail.
O’Callaghan faces a maximum of three years in county jail when she is sentenced July 23.
Rico said O’Callaghan was remanded to custody at her own request while she awaits sentencing. He added he will ask for probation as a minimum based on her military service and unblemished career prior to the charges.
Rico said he felt the jury’s verdict was “based on emotion” rather than the necessary legal standard for conviction.
Najee Ali, a community activist who spoke with the Thomas family, said they were grateful for the verdict but that “no one is celebrating.”
“It’s very rare to have a police officer prosecuted, let alone convicted,” he said.
Ali said the family is asking that O’Callaghan receive the maximum sentence to send a message that police brutality will not be tolerated.