Statue Of Liberty Climber Avoids Prison For Protest

NEW YORK — A New York City activist will have to complete probation and community service, but not a prison term, for climbing the Statue of Liberty last summer.

A federal magistrate judge sentenced Therese Patricia Okoumou on Tuesday to five years probation and 200 hours of community service for her Independence Day protest against the Trump administration's immigration policies, court records show.

Okoumou faced up to 18 months in prison following her December conviction on misdemeanor charges of trespassing, interference with government agency functions and disorderly conduct.

Okoumou went to her Tuesday sentencing with her face covered in clear plastic tape, the Associated Press reported, continuing her practice of wearing politically charged outfits to court. The judge "refused" to continue until she took the tape off, according to the AP.

Federal prosecutors requested a sentence of at least 30 days behind bars and three years of probation. Okoumou put law enforcement officers in danger and forced more than 4,300 people to evacuate Liberty Island by climbing the statue's base, prosecutors said in a sentencing letter.

Prosecutors also said Okoumou has continued to stage "climbing stunts." She scaled the Eiffel Tower twice in late November and ascended the Austin headquarters of Southwest Key, a nonprofit that runs shelters for immigrant kids, after her conviction, with arrests in both cases, according to the prosecutors' letter.

But several other protesters have faced charges for climbing the statue without being sent to prison, Okoumou's lawyers noted in their own letter. They called for a sentence of a month of "home confinement" and community service.

"The Statue of Liberty is known as a symbol of freedom from persecution the world over — indeed, the Statue herself cries out to those who 'yearn to be free,'" Okoumou's lawyers wrote. "Ms. Okoumou is far from the first to heed this call — to take up political protest at or on the Statue and to refuse to leave after doing so."

Okoumou, a naturalized U.S. citizen who immigrated from the Republic of Congo, drew national attention last summer by taking protests of federal immigration policies to new heights. Her climb came amid national debate over the Trump administration's separations of immigrant families.

The profile of Okoumou's case rose even further when Michael Avenatti, the brash attorney best known for representing the porn star Stormy Daniels, joined her legal team in December.