{"id":182788,"date":"2015-06-06T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-06T23:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/06\/06\/another-cop-actually-convicted-by-a-jury\/"},"modified":"2015-06-06T18:53:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T23:53:00","slug":"another-cop-actually-convicted-by-a-jury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/06\/06\/another-cop-actually-convicted-by-a-jury\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Cop Actually Convicted by a Jury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LAPD Officer Mary O\u2019Callaghan was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-jury-verdict-lapd-officer-in-assault-trial-20150605-story.html\">convicted of &#8220;assault under color of authority&#8221; for repeated kicking a woman that she had already handcuffed<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">The camera captured the Los Angeles police officer hissing a cruel threat at the handcuffed woman, striking at her throat with an open hand and kicking her in the crotch.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">The video of the arrest, recorded by a patrol-car camera, persuaded jurors to convict Officer Mary O\u2019Callaghan on Friday of assault under color of authority.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">During the two-week trial, in which the defense argued that O\u2019Callaghan hadn\u2019t used excessive force, the video gave jurors an unvarnished view of what happened, one said.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cIt played a big role,\u201d said Deedra Garcia, the jury forewoman. \u201cIt gave us a lot of evidence.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">The prosecution&#8217;s case centered on the video, which showed O&#8217;Callaghan jab at Thomas\u2019 throat with an open hand and threaten to break her arms and kick her in the crotch. In the video, O\u2019Callaghan then raises her boot and strikes Thomas, whose body shakes in response.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">The recording captured Thomas \u2014 who asked officers for an ambulance more than 30 minutes before one was called \u2014 breathing heavily and repeatedly saying, \u201cI can\u2019t.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">A video from a dashboard camera in another patrol car, which was also played during the trial, recorded O\u2019Callaghan laughing and smoking a cigarette as she peeked inside the car at Thomas, whose legs were tied with a nylon hobble restraint.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cThat ain\u2019t a good sign,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan says out loud in the video.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Assistant Head Deputy Dist. Atty. Shannon Presby told jurors that O\u2019Callaghan was \u201cimmune from any empathy\u201d and that the video clearly showed the officer kicking Thomas in the crotch and the stomach.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even 5 years ago, it would have been unlikely that the Jury would have voted to convict, and if they had it would have taken much longer than their two days deliberating.<\/p>\n<p>I expect her to get no jail time, though.<\/p>\n<p>I doubt that the recent push-back against police impunity has permeated the judiciary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAPD Officer Mary O\u2019Callaghan was convicted of &#8220;assault under color of authority&#8221; for repeated kicking a woman that she had already handcuffed: The camera captured the Los Angeles police officer hissing a cruel threat at the handcuffed woman, striking at her throat with an open hand and kicking her in the crotch.The video of the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[972,1041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-justice","category-law-enforcement-misconduct"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182788"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}