Woman who struck man with car during Denver protest sentenced to community service

A pistillate who struck a antheral with her car past twelvemonth connected the archetypal time of George Floyd protests successful downtown Denver was sentenced Monday to assemblage service.

A assemblage successful July convicted Jennifer Watson, 38, of reckless driving but acquitted her of third-degree battle successful transportation to the May 28, 2020, incidental connected Broadway adjacent the Colorado Capitol.

Denver County Court Judge Kerri Lombardi sentenced Watson connected Monday to 48 hours of assemblage work and $341 successful fines and fees, tribunal records show.

A video recorded by a bystander that went viral showed Watson’s car surrounded by a tiny radical of protesters, including a antheral who was connected the hood of her car. Watson started to thrust done the assemblage and the antheral jumped disconnected the hood and moved distant from the car.

Watson past turned and drove toward him, striking him with the beforehand of her car, the video showed. The antheral was not earnestly injured, according to erstwhile interviews.

Watson’s attorney, Ryan Brackley, said that the protesters were striking Watson’s car and smashed her windshield. She was acrophobic and wanted to permission the situation. Watson called Denver constabulary doubly to study the incidental and cooperated with the investigation, Brackley antecedently said.

Brackley said Monday that the condemnation for the postulation discourtesy was fair. It was important to Watson that she beryllium capable to explicate to the justice her position of the incidental and however it impacted her life, Brackley said.

Watson’s email and telephone were flooded with hateful messages aft the video went viral, helium said, and radical sent her images of the location wherever she had been living.

“From the infinitesimal that video went viral, her beingness was ne'er the same,” Brackley said.