Prosecutors charged with two Madison women accused of beating a Wisconsin state senator during an assault on police racism with assault.
MADISON, Wis. – Prosecutors on Wednesday accused two women, including a high school social worker, of attacking a Wisconsin state senator during a chaotic night of violence outside the state Capitol last month.
Kerida O’Reilly, 33, and Samantha Hamer, 26, were charged with having been part of a substantial assault, a felony punishable by up to $ 10,000 in fines and three and a half years in prison, online court records show.
Both women were arrested Monday after turning themselves in to the police. Both appeared in Dane County Court on Wednesday and were released on bail. Defense attorneys asked that the charges be dismissed due to insufficient evidence, but a court commissioner denied the request. Both women are expelled from Capitol Square and are due to return to court on August 6, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
O’Reilly’s lawyer Nathan Otis said in an email to The Associated Press that it will be clear that she did not commit any crime, and that the lack of evidence will become clear as the case progresses.
In a separate email to the AP, Hamer’s lawyer Adam Welch said his client is “absolutely innocent” and that the prosecutors’ case against him “is surprisingly thin.”
Investigators believe the women attacked Democrat Tim Carpenter during the June 23 protest outside the State Capitol, one of a series of protests in downtown Madison that took place after the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. .
Hamer approached Carpenter to ask him to stop filming, but other people “beat” and assaulted him, Welch said.
The protest that night was sparked by the arrest of a black man who yelled at patrons of the downtown restaurant through a megaphone while carrying a baseball bat. Protesters also knocked down two statues outside the Capitol and threw a Molotov cocktail at a government building.
Paramedics treated Carpenter, but decided not to go to the hospital.
O’Reilly is a physical therapist and Hamer is a social worker in the Mount Horeb School District. It was listed on the district’s website as a resource for high school students and their families who need help dealing with emotional distress and other problems. The district released Hamer on leave Monday.
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