A Denver jury found a woman accused of hitting a person with her SUV during a 2020 George Floyd protest not guilty of assault.
“Ms. Watson should not have been charged. We appreciate the jury’s verdict of not guilty to the assault charge,” driver Jennifer Watson’s attorneys at Brackley Law Office PLLC said in a statement on Facebook after the verdict Friday.
The jury did find her guilty of a misdemeanor reckless driving charge.
Watson’s defense team argued she was fearful during the May 2020 protest in Denver, saying, “she was surrounded by people who began kicking and hitting her car and taunting and yelling at her.”
“On the evening of May 28, 2020, my client was just trying to get home, driving a route she took regularly, when she was diverted by protesters at the intersection of East Colfax and Broadway. She was alone in her car with her dog when she was surrounded by people who began kicking and hitting her car and taunting and yelling at her. While stopped, Mr. Max Bailey jumped up onto the hood of her car and her windshield was smashed in two places. She was terrified and fearful for her safety,” Watson’s lawyers said last year in a statement.
Video of the scene went viral last year and showed Watson’s black SUV driving through an intersection surrounded by protesters before Max Bailey, 22, is seen on the hood of her car.
Running over a nonviolent protester should be illegal. Law statement: ”the driver must be ’exercising due care,’ and the person in the roadway must be there to protest and be purposefully blocking the vehicles.” @COJudiciaryComm #Colorado #Coleg pic.twitter.com/LuD0blWLRb
— ᒍOSᕼᑌᗩ ᒍEᖇEᗪ (@Joshuajered) July 6, 2020
and what was mr max bailey and his ilk found guilty of?
Finally a good decision is made by the system. Congratulations! The woman driver pays dearly through taxes , tags, etc. to be on that road. The “rioters” ( as they call conservative protesters), had no right or business to be in her path. They showed their ignorance and violence when they laid hands on her property. As they say, case closed.
No one should ever be charged with a crime of running down a protester IF they are blocking the road.
Impeding travel and commerce is a federal crime and shouldn’t be acceptable behavior by protestors, yet yellow cops shy away from enforcing the law.
Killing several of these Thugs blocking highways and roads will send a real lesson to those morons!