Jail is one thing — but forcing her to wear the same outfit to two court dates was too much to bear for this fashion-forward Occupy Wall Street cop-puncher.
Cecily McMillan, convicted last month for elbowing a police officer in the eye during a 2012 protest, broke down in sobs at her Manhattan court hearing Wednesday for an unrelated obstruction charge.
The reason: Riker’s Island prison officials brought her the same outfit she’d already worn to court.
“She wasn’t happy with the clothing she was given,” said her defense lawyer Martin Stolar. “And she wanted to be uncuffed.”
McMillan, 26, who started serving a 90 day sentence on Riker’s Island last week, could be heard wailing from the holding cell before she stepped out to face Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Ann Scherzer.
The flowing white dress with a grey T-shirt over it and beige jacket was the same ensemble — minus the handcuffs and prison-issue black slippers — that McMillan wore when jurors found her guilty of the cop assault on May 5. She’s been in jail ever since.
McMillan’s eyes pooled with tears as she stood beside her attorney during the brief appearance — on a charge for claiming she was a lawyer and then telling two men accused of fare-beating not to cooperate with cops in December of 2013.
And the defiant bravado she displayed throughout her trial had clearly vanished.
Manhattan prosecutors offered McMillan a no-jail plea deal of community service and anger management if she copped to the misdemeanor rap. Stolar said he and his client would consider it.
Riker’s Island hasn’t been easy on the New School student, her lawyer said. “It’s not a very good place to be,” he said. “She’s not happy, just like every other inmate.”
McMillan was convicted of felony assault for cracking a cop in the eye in 2012 when he tried to shepherd a crowd of Occupy Wall Street protestors out of Zuccotti Park on the six-month anniversary of the movement.
During the four-week trial, McMillan testified that she elbowed Police Offier Grantley Bovell in the eye after he grabbed her right breast.
But prosecutors said McMillan had refused to leave the park and was angrily yelling at cops.
A damning video played for the 12 jurors showed Bovell trying to escort McMillan out when she suddenly crouches down and jumps up, clocking him in the eye.
Even at sentencing, the activist, who seemed to bask in the media attention of her trial, told the judge she was innocent. “I cannot confess to a crime I did not commit,” she said defiantly as he sent her to jail for three months.