Richmond woman pleads guilty to Stanley Cup rioting
A 25-year-old Richmond woman has pled guilty to one count of participating in a riot, and will be sentenced next year.
Kathleen (Katie) Marie Elyse Brownell appeared in Vancouver provincial court on Wednesday where she entered the plea, despite professing her innocence to The Richmond Review earlier this year. The former Matthew McNair student had also been charged with breaking and entering, and mischief in connection with the June 15, 2011 riot that broke out following Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins.
Brownell is scheduled to be sentenced on May 8, 2013.
Brownell spoke to The Richmond Review earlier this year to tell her side of the story.
She said she was downtown alone on the night of the riot, and was standing in front of the Bank of Montreal in Downtown Vancouver.
She noticed police officers, and "a line that was being pushed back and forth."
"I saw people being escorted through the back, so I went down to try and get escorted through as well. I turned around to look at something, and the next thing I remember is being hit over the back of the head with a club and being yelled at by a police officer who said 'You shouldn't even be here.'"
She said she told the officer she was just trying to go home.
The next morning, she awoke with a giant lump on her head. She said she hadn't been drinking that night, and believes she got home via the SkyTrain.
Her memory of what happened that night is now hazy, courtesy the head blow, she said.
She said she "doesn't agree" with the burning, vandalism and looting that went on that night, but said she's yet to see images of her doing anything wrong.
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