It didn’t take long for a Manhattan federal jury to decide against 42-year-old Stacey Hessler’s police brutality claim. The Long Island native and mother of four gained notoriety during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park.
After deliberating for just 40 minutes, the jury sided with the city. City attorneys stated in court that “Hessler blocked pedestrian traffic and refused to move when cops politely asked her to make way, then tried to escape when they finally moved to arrest her.”
Hessler, who ditched her family to join the Occupy movement, claimed that cops “violently arrested her during a 2011 protest,” according to the NY Post.
But the city attorney argued: “Officers were faced with balancing the rights of protesters with the rights of people who live and work in the neighborhood.”
Hessler sued the city in 2013, claiming NYPD cops “dragged her around by her dreadlocks.”
The Florida mom apparently left her family behind in Daytona Beach to camp out during the protests with a “younger Brooklyn waiter.”
In a 2012 NY Post article Hessler is described among other things as a “roller-derby queen, rock-star musician, dreadlock princess, and organic vegan freak” who twisted her hair into “long, scraggly dreadlocks” and “dressed in raggedy outfits” to blend in with the Zuccotti crowd.
At about the same time, Hessler became legally split from her banker husband and was reportedly awarded over $80,000 in a divorce settlement.
Her job listed in court papers was “protester” and her employer as “Occupy Wall Street.” Annual salary: $0, the Post reported.
