A woman charged with reckless assault in the third degree after she drove her car through a Black Lives Matter protest in New York City last year has rejected a plea deal in favor of a trial she hopes will vindicate her of wrongdoing.
Kathleen Casillo, 53, who appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday, has claimed protesters surrounded her car and called her a “white privilege bitch” and started banging on the vehicle. Casillo told police she panicked and accidentally hit the gas pedal.
Casillo was issued a desk appearance ticket after the incident and was released hours after her arrest. Her 29-year-old daughter was also in the car at the time but was not charged.
The plea deal would have required Casillo to complete six days of community service and a one-year suspension of her drivers license. Now a jury will decide on her innocence or guilt.
Protesters who were injured are calling for Casillo’s conviction, blaming white supremacy.
‘It’s white supremacy that allowed Kathleen to believe she had the right to end the lives of anyone that got in her way, especially BLM protesters,” protester Roque Rodriguez said in the Daily Mail report.
The Daily Mail report said:
In a statement to AMNY, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said: ‘Our office has attempted to speak with every victim in this case.’
But Casillo insists she was the victim, and says she only drove off after the protesters began attacking her car as she tried to move along a public road. She claimed at the time she panicked and hit the gas as protesters began banging on her car and trying to open the doors, the New York Daily News reported last year.
In a statement to AMNY, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said: ‘Our office has attempted to speak with every victim in this case.’
Casillo is due back in court on January 28.
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