ABC(NEW YORK) — Theresa Okoumou may face jail time at her sentencing Tuesday for climbing the Statue of Liberty on July 4 to protest President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy that divided families at the southern border.
The 45-year-old will be sentenced by Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein in Manhattan, New York. The judge had previously asked for a field trip to the statue in order to view the spot where Okoumou perched for three hours, causing the evacuation of 4,300 people from Liberty Island during the holiday.
Federal prosecutors have asked that Okoumou be incarcerated for at least 30 days because she put herself and her rescuers in danger and also to deter future lawbreaking after she was arrested again during a climbing protest over immigration in Texas. The sentencing recommendation also includes three years’ probation, according to court records.
At a bail revocation hearing earlier this month, Gorenstein ordered home detention with an electronic bracelet to monitor Okoumou’s whereabouts.
Okoumou’s lawyers have argued her protests created no danger, that jail time for a Statue of Liberty protest would be unprecedented and that jail would prevent her from getting a job, which the judge had encouraged her to do.
Okoumou was convicted in December of trespassing for scaling the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty and refusing to come down.
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