An Occupy Wall Street activist threatened to kill the family of a police officer after being arrested for interfering with the arrest of a couple accused of fare-dodging on the New York subway, it was alleged on Monday.



Cecily McMillan, who was jailed earlier this year after being convicted of assaulting a police officer, returned to Manhattan criminal court charged with obstructing governmental administration during an incident in Union Square station last December.

Officer Luis Castillo told a pretrial hearing on Monday morning that he heard McMillan, 26, accuse his partner, officer Brian Rothermel, of being a “male chauvinist pig” in the cells area of their transit police precinct inside the subway station.

“And he probably doesn’t have any kids or a wife,” Castillo recalled McMillan going on to say, “but if he did, she’ll kill them.”

McMillan denies the misdemeanour charge, which carries a potential prison sentence of a year. She previously told the Guardian that she did not make the alleged remarks to Rothermel. In a statement, a spokesman for McMillan’s support network said that McMillan was “arrested for attempting to document by video the arrests” and had been attempting to defend the couple against police harassment and abuse.

Under questioning from assistant district attorney Leah Saxtein, Castillo told the court that he and Rothermel encountered McMillan on a bench on the L train platform in the early hours of 7 December. They were confronting a man and woman whom they had just seen entering the subway through the emergency exit door without paying a fare, he said.

As the plainclothes officers identified themselves, Castillo said, McMillan began shouting at the couple that they should not follow the police instructions. “She said she was a lawyer, that she knew the law, and they didn’t have to cooperate with us,” he said, adding that the officers asked her to stop interfering.

The woman showed the police a Mexican state identification, said Castillo, but McMillan attempted to stop the man doing the same with his Spanish ID card. “When he tried to hand the ID to me, that’s when Ms McMillan grabbed his hand, grabbed it so strongly that his ID fell into his lap,” said Castillo.

The couple did not know McMillan, he said, and “my perception was that they were afraid of Ms McMillan, that their eyes were kind of bulging out as if to say ‘What’s wrong with this woman?’” said the officer, a 12-year veteran of the transit police.

As the officers led the couple upstairs to the precinct, McMillan followed and appeared to be video-recording the incident on her cellphone, according to Castillo, who said he had to walk around her several times. She meanwhile continued loudly informing the couple that they should not cooperate with the police, he said.

Under cross-examination from Martin Stolar, McMillan’s attorney, Castillo said: “We told her she could record, she just can’t interfere.”

Once the group arrived at the precinct and the couple was led inside, McMillan “rushed the door” and then tried to force it open as Castillo tried to shut her out, he said, and continued to scream and shout. Eventually the desk sergeant said “she’s interfered enough,” said Castillo, and McMillan was ushered inside. She continued to apparently record the incident on her phone, but was then arrested and handcuffed.

The officer testified that McMillan “became hysterical” when her glasses were removed during a search by a female officer. “She says she’s legally blind, can’t see, and they have no right to touch her,” he said.

McMillan was then taken to the cells area, where she screamed and demanded a change of clothing because she couldn’t breathe, as police tried to calm her down, according to Castillo. He added that around the time she made the threat to Rothermel, McMillan also told police that they “probably didn’t know who she was,” but warned them to “wait until we find out”.

Throughout this period of the night, from about 2.20am, McMillan was herself being video-recorded by Rothermel on his own cell phone, Castillo said, under questioning from Stolar. Attempts by the attorney to ask why were blocked by Judge Anthony Ferrara.

A jury of six people will be selected following the pretrial hearing, which centres on whether certain statements McMillan made after her arrest can be used against her. Ferrara told Stolar several times to speed up his cross-examination of Castillo. “I got a three-year-old granddaughter,” Ferrara said. “I wanna see her next birthday.” He later added: “Is this Dostoevsky I’m hearing here?”

Ferrara ruled earlier on Monday that Saxtein may not mention McMillan’s assault conviction during this case. McMillan, a graduate student at the New School, served about eight weeks on Rikers Island after being convicted in May of assaulting officer Grantley Bovell as he led her away from an Occupy demonstration in lower Manhattan in March 2012. She maintained she struck him instinctively after one of her breasts was grabbed. She was released in July.

A trial will commence once the jury has been selected. Ferrara also ruled that prosecutors may not refer during the trial to McMillan’s alleged threat to Rothermel’s family. The judge said it was not directly relevant to the case and could be prejudicial. Ferrara also ruled out reference to McMillan’s alleged demand for clothing from the police.