Jury convicts female LA officer of assault in deadly arrest

[Jazzy]

Jurors on Friday convicted a female Los Angeles police officer of felony assault for repeatedly kicking a handcuffed woman who later died.

The jury of 11 women and one man reached its verdict after about 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, appearing to cry 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, adding that he felt the jury's verdict was "based on emotion" rather than the necessary legal standard for conviction.

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 back seat 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 she was not charged in Thomas' death. She had 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 faces a maximum of three years in county jail when she is sentenced July 23.

Did she not realize there was a dash cam?