A mother accused of driving through a downtown protest was trying to protect her children as officers gave differing directions for how to navigate through the massive crowd, according to her attorney.
“She was stopping, she was turning, she was avoiding individuals to try and get out,” Cook County Assistant Public Defender Aaron Goldstein said Thursday. “At one point, the car was being shook, there were protesters surrounding her, there were cops surrounding her. She was trying to protect her children who were in harm’s way. …That’s all that was going on.”
Deirdre Kemp, 30, faces multiple charges for driving through a protest of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in the Loop.
She turned herself in nine days later and was ordered to be held in custody pending trial.
Goldstein is fighting for her release, telling a judge Thursday that Kemp is a single working mother who needs to be back with her children. A judge will review the issue at Kemp’s next court date Tuesday.
“She is not a threat to the community; she is trying to take care of her children,” Goldstein told reporters Thursday. “This is someone that should not be in jail, and the perverse justice of it all, as the protesters were out protesting immigration and the separation of families, we’ve now taken a mother away from their children.”
The protest of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration raids drew thousands of people to the Loop on June 10.
Kemp was trying to take her children to the beach when she was stopped by the crowd near State and Monroe Streets, according to Goldstein.
An officer stood in front of Kemp’s car and signaled for her to turn right but she disregarded officers’ commands, accelerated and made a left, driving in the direction of the protestors, according to prosecutors.
Goldstein claims Kemp was given mixed directions from officers.
Kemp continued to drive through the crowd, as officers chased after, yelling for her to stop, according to prosecutors.
Officers chasing after Kemp collided with a 66-year-old protester, who was hospitalized with a broken arm.
Chicago police initially said Kemp struck the protester, one of the many “misunderstandings” of this case, according to Goldstein.
Kemp was charged with aggravated reckless driving causing bodily harm, aggravated fleeing causing bodily injury, and driving on a suspended license. She also received citations for failure to obey a police officer and driving on a suspended license.
At the time of the incident, Kemp was on bond for a “violent felony case” out of Will County, according to prosecutors.