When you really believe you are innocent when charged with a crime, you don’t accept a plea deal. 53-year-old Kathleen Casillo maintains she’s “not responsible.” All she was doing was defending herself and her adult daughter from physical bodily harm at the hands of Black Lives Matter™ rioters.
No deal for Casillo
Queens, New York resident Kathleen Casillo isn’t about to plead guilty to anything, even if it does give her a fairly light deal. Preferring to take her chances with a jury of her peers, she’s risking prison time to prove her point.
Defending yourself is not a crime, unless our Constitution really is toilet paper, as all the Democrats keep insisting. This is the second time she turned down a bargain with the devil.
Staring at seven years in prison is enough to make anyone consider signing any deal a DA sticks in front of them, as long as it gives a way out. The first thing any defense attorney will tell you is that all their clients are convinced they are innocent. Even when caught in the act of dismembering a body, they still deserve their day in court.
Kathleen Casillo and her daughter were innocent victims of violent criminal BLM rioters.
Now the Manhattan District Attorney's Office keeps trying to bully her into taking a plea deal.
She is refusing. pic.twitter.com/TD9Tjjk4CG
— National Conservative (@NatCon2022) December 2, 2022
One thing, however, that the truly “innocent” clients have in common, is that they scream bloody murder that “they were framed” and won’t admit to anything. All the way to the bitter end, be it victory or defeat. Kathleen is convinced she is innocent.
There is no dispute that she was behind the wheel of the BMW. It did in fact plow through “pedestrians.” The incident did occur in Midtown Manhattan just before Christmas in 2020. She won’t take the deal because “she hit the pedal out of fear of an angry mob that was trying to pull her and her daughter from the car.”
Any reasonable dozen New Yorkers should agree it was clear self-defense and set her free. A dozen rabid socialist followers of Antifa® would add extra years for “aggravating” circumstances. Casillo admits it could turn out to be a crapshoot.
A matter of principle
If Casillo signed the plea deal she would be virtually off the hook, her lawyer explains. The prosecutor wants to avoid the expense of proving the un-provable but politically social accusations. He offered “a one-year driver license suspension and six days of community service.” Ms. Casillo says “No. Prove your case, if you can.”
They dare make an example out of her when shoplifting has become a profession. On Tuesday, November 29, she told the Judge “no,” too. The last time she told the Manhattan Criminal Court the same thing was “nearly a year” ago. That bargain was for “charges of reckless assault and reckless endangerment.” She wasn’t reckless and she was the one in danger, along with her daughter.
Defense lawyer Oliver Storch dug up “additional videos of the encounter.” He sent copies over to the DA so they could get an eyeful of what the jury will see in court since they don’t have a deal. Video “showing agitators harassing patrons of businesses along the protest before descending on Mrs. Casillo and her daughter.”
They also show the mob of Antifa® organized anarchists “physically putting their hands on the hood of her car, jumping on the hood and attempting to smash the car window and attempting to open said car.” Jurors are likely to see her side of it.
“Nobody should ever have to be forced into a fight or flight predicament when simply on their way to go Christmas shopping.” Her daughter was no toddler but that didn’t stop the howling mob of barbarians from trying to drag the then-29-year-old through the window of a BMW. She won’t deal, dicker or bargain about it.
One moment, they were moving with traffic on the public roadway at East 39th Street and Third Avenue around 4 p.m., which should be a safe time and place for motorists. Without warning they were surrounded by an angry pack of protesters “demonstrating in support of people jailed in the region by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” What would you do? Attorney’s will ask the jury. Casillo floored it. “I never intended on hurting anyone. I just feared for my daughter’s life more than anybody. I thought they were going to pull her out of the car.“
