Jury acquits Mulberry woman charged in June during anti-abortion protest at Lakeland clinic
A woman arrested in June while protesting outside a Lakeland clinic has been found not guilty of the charges she faced.
A Lakeland Police Department officer arrested Angela Delauney of Mulberry outside the Lakeland Women’s Health Center on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision invalidating the Roe v. Wade ruling and striking down a federal right to abortion. Delauney had joined others in protesting at the clinic, the only facility in Polk County that provides abortions.
Police arrest two protesters at Polk's only clinic that offers abortions
In an arrest report, an officer wrote that Delauney and other protesters had been warned not to attach signs to power poles because the signs could block the view of drivers turning onto South Florida Avenue from Horizon Court. The report said that an officer checked later and found two signs still attached to a pole.
As the officer reached to take a sign, Delauney tried to prevent its removal by grabbing the sign and pulling it toward her, the report said. An officer instructed Delauney to release the sign, the report said, but she didn't do so. An officer told her she was under arrest and began to handcuff her, but Delauney pulled away, the report said.
LPD charged her with resisting arrest without violence.
Delauney faced a jury trial in Polk County Court for the 10th Judicial Circuit in Bartow and was found not guilty, said Jacob Orr, an assistant state attorney.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Mulberry abortion protester not guilty after Lakeland clinic arrest
