LAPD Officer Gets 3 Years For Beating Woman During Arrest
by April V. Taylor | Courtesy of Kulture Critic
Former Los Angeles police officer Mary O’Callaghan has been sentenced to the maximum three years in jail for assaulting 35-year-old Alesia Thomas, who died shortly after a 2012 arrest. The arrest was captured on video and shows O’Callaghan jabbing Thomas in the throat and threatening to kick her before raising her boot and striking Thomas. The footage also shows O’Callaghan forcing Thomas into the police vehicle, striking her with an open hand and kicking her in the crotch. A jury found O’Callaghan guilty of assault under color of authority.
Officers arrived at Thomas’s home that day to investigate claims that she had abandoned her children. Thomas requested that officers call paramedics, but the call was not made until at least 30 minutes after her request. Footage of the incident shows Thomas breathing heavily before losing consciousness. She died a short time later at the hospital.
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Prosecutors were unable to charge O’Callaghan for Thomas’s death due to a lack of evidence that made it impossible to determine whether the assault or Thomas’s cocaine intoxication was responsible for her death. The final 20 months of O’Callaghan’s sentence have been suspended, so she will only spend around 16 months in a county jail. O’Callaghan’s attorney, Robert Rico, claims that his client’s use of force was “reasonable” and “necessary” and plans to file a motion for a new trial based on the fact that jurors were influenced by their emotions after watching video footage of the assault.
Before being sentenced, O’Callaghan offered an apology to Thomas’s mother, stating, “Mother to mother, I am extremely sorry for the loss of your daughter.” Thomas’s mother, Sandra Thomas, spoke directly to O’Callaghan prior to sentencing stating, “You have to show compassion for people. It makes me feel like she wanted that to happen.” O’Callaghan was an 18-year LAPD veteran who was relieved of duty at the conclusion of an investigation into Thomas’s death. Since she has a felony charge on her record, she will never work as a police officer again.