The young teacher’s aide who was pepper-sprayed last month during the Occupy Wall Street protest is demanding Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance prosecute the deputy inspector caught on video doing the spraying.
Kaylee Dedrick, 24, was visible in widely-circulated demonstration videos standing by orange netting, then suddenly screaming in pain and falling to her knees.
She needed emergency treatment at the scene and then went to the emergency room, and is demanding misdemeanor assault charges against Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, said her lawyer, Ronald Kuby, referring to the incident in a letter to Vance as “the spray felt ’round the world.”
Prosecutors are reportedly investigating the incident, which had been immediately described as justified by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and department spokespeople.
“The video shows D.I. Bologna discharging pepper spray in an arcing sweep at several women who are behaving peacefully and are surrounded by orange mesh netting,” Kuby wrote today in his letter to Vance.
“Department Spokesperson Paul Browne stated publicly that the pepper-spraying was justified as part of ‘a continuum of force that obviated the use of batons.’ This suggests that my client should be grateful that she was not beaten to the ground with police clubs, but it does not explain why D.I. Bologna discharged his pepper spray,” Kuby wrote.
He adds, “It is time that D.I. Bologna stop relying on tax-payer supplied spokespeople and tell his story in the same venue given to regular citizens — at trial.”
Prosecutors declined to comment on the request.