Female LA officer found guilty of assaulting handcuffed woman

A U.S. jury on Friday convicted a white female Los Angeles police officer of assault for kicking and shoving a handcuffed black woman who later died.

In July 2012, Mary O'Callaghan was assisting other police officers to detain Alesia Thomas for questioning on child abandonment. While trying to make Thomas sit in a patrol car, O'Callaghan kicked her several times in the groin, abdomen and shoved her in the throat, according to a squad-car video camera recording.

Shortly after her struggle with the police officer, Thomas fainted in the car and later died in the hospital. Although the coroner's office determined that acute cocaine intoxication played a major role in Thomas' death, physical assault could not be ruled out as a factor as well.

O'Callaghan had been charged with assault under color of authority, but not charged in Thomas' death.

The 50-year-old officer was taken into custody and faces up to three years in prison when she is sentenced on July 23.

Since 2014, the United States has seen a wave of protests calling for police accountability, triggered by a series of incidents in which white U.S. police officers have killed unarmed black men.

On April 19, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died from spinal injuries suffered in police custody in Baltimore. In July 2014, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man from the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, was killed by multiple gunshots fired by a police officer when he walked down the street. Endi