The events diverge here with McMillan claiming the officer grabbed her breast and in return, she elbowed the police officer in the eye, although she claims to have no memory of the incident.
(meta data) TITLE: Protester Says She Doesn't Recall Hitting Officer With Elbow - NYTimes.com (meta data) AUTHOR: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/s/nate_schweber/index.html 17 captures 01 May 2014 - 07 Aug 2022 About this capture COLLECTED BY Organization: Internet Archive The Internet Archive discovers and captures web pages through many different web crawls. At any given time several distinct crawls are running, some for months, and some every day or longer. View the web archive through the Wayback Machine. Collection: International News Crawls Crawls of International News Sites The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20140501062032/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/nyregion/protester-says-she-doesnt-recall-striking-a-police-officer.html ###### N.Y. / Region|Protester Says She Doesn't Recall Hitting Officer With Elbow search sponsored by ### N.Y. / Region # Protester Says She Doesn't Recall Hitting Officer With Elbow Cecily McMillan, 25, is charged with assaulting a police officer during an Occupy Wall Street rally at Zuccotti Park in 2012. Anthony Lanzilote for The New York Times Cecily McMillan, the Occupy Wall Street protester charged with assaulting a New York City police officer, testified on Wednesday that she has no recollection of blackening the officer's eye with her elbow. Having watched a video of the episode, though, she does not deny doing it. "As I have no memory of my elbow coming into contact with the officer's face," she said, "I've watched it hundreds of times trying to make sense of what happened." On this ninth day of testimony, Ms. McMillan, 25, stood by her claim that she reacted during a clearing out of Zuccotti Park on March 17, 2012, after Officer Grantley Bovell grabbed her breast. "All of the sudden I feel somebody grab me from behind, from my right breast, and pull me backward," she said. "I was lifted in the air and then I felt my face slammed to the ground." Ms. McMillan said she had spent that St. Patrick's Day on a pub crawl with a visiting friend. They took a cab to Zuccotti Park in the hopes of finding another friend, and a less crowded Lower Manhattan bar. The friend, Lara Wasserman, an opera singer, testified Wednesday that she and Ms. McMillan each had about seven beers in the four hours before the incident. When asked by a defense lawyer, Martin R. Stolar, if that was excessive, Ms. Wasserman said, "No, we went to school in Wisconsin." Closing arguments are expected to begin Friday. Ms. McMillan, a labor organizer who faces seven years in prison if convicted, expressed remorse. "I'm really sorry that officer got hurt," she said. "People are doing their jobs; stuff happens." She added that part of what drew her to the protests at Zuccotti Park was the hope of pushing the city to negotiate better contracts for its police officers. On cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Erin Choi hammered on records of Ms. McMillan's medical examinations from the days right after her arrest. None specified that her breast was groped. "It says I was abused," Ms. McMillan said. "But it does not say specifically my breast." Earlier, Officer Bovell testified that he put his hand on Ms. McMillan's shoulder to steer her out of the park after she refused a command to leave from a second officer. He also admitted to being suspended for several days by the Police Department for fixing traffic tickets in 2010. An onlooker's video of the episode appeared to show Ms. McMillan elbow Officer Bovell's face, run several steps, and get tackled by several officers. Of the thousands of people arrested at Occupy Wall Street, she is just one of a few who opted for a trial. She did so, she has said, because accepting the state's plea deal to avoid jail would have put a felony on her record. Ms. McMillan said while her memories of that day — the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street — are just "visceral blurs," her interpretation of the video was that Officer Bovell grabbed her "forcefully from behind" and caused her knees to buckle just before she struck backward. "I was a cheerleader; I know how to jump," she said. "But I'm a completely nonviolent activist and I've been through extensive training to make sure that no part of my body could ever be used to hurt others." ## Site Index
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Cecily McMillan
Zuccotti Park arrest.
On March 17, 2012, McMillan was celebrating St. Patrick's Day with friends in Lower Manhattan when she went to Zuccotti Park to meet up with more friends. On that day, hundreds of people were in the park commemorating the six-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Police officers announced that the park was closed and that anyone remaining inside would be charged with trespassing, and later began clearing out the remaining protestors. According to the police, McMillan was asked to leave the park, but refused to leave. The officer later placed a hand on her shoulder to lead her out.