An Occupy Wall Street activist was convicted Monday of assaulting a police officer at Zuccotti Park in New York City in 2012. 

The protestor, Cecily McMillan, 25, was found guilty of assaulting the officer by a jury of eight women and four men in Manhattan's State Supreme Court, The New York Times reports.

They rejected her claim that she reacted by instinct when he grabbed her breast during a protest that took place on St. Patrick's Day. She also said she could not specifically remember everything that happened that night. 

McMillan's supporters shouted, "Shame, shame, shame," when the guilty verdict was announced, and the cries became louder when Justice Ronald A. Zweibel ordered that she be held in jail until sentencing. 

The assault of a police officer is a felony offense that carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison. 

McMillan was arrested on March 17, 2012, when hundreds of people gathered to the site of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began six months prior. The police carried out many protestors, many of whom locked arms and refused to move. 

McMillian, a volunteer labor organizer who is in graduate school, said she went to the park that night to meet her friend, not to protest. 

She said she had been celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a friend, then went to Zuccotti Park to meet a third friend and go to a bar. 

Officer Grantley Bovell testified that he saw McMillan flailing her arms and cursing at a female officer. He said he told her to vacate the park, but she refused, and so he put his hand on her shoulder to lead her out. 

"As I'm walking her out," he said, "I remember her saying to someone: 'Are you filming this? Are you filming this?' Then I remember the defendant crouching down and lunging with her elbow and hitting me in the face."

A video corroborated Bovell's story, as McMillan is seen bending her knees then throwing her elbow into the officer's right eye. She then runs a few steps and is tackled by other officers. 

McMillan said she did not remember hitting the officer, and testified that she thought someone was trying to grope her. 

"All of a sudden I feel somebody grab me from behind, from my right breast, and pull me backward," she said.

McMillan's lawyer, Martin Stolar, showed a picture of a bruise above her right breast that was taken the day after she was arrested. 

"This is the smoking gun in the case," he said during closing arguments. "She got grabbed and she hit. That's an accident."

Assistant district attorney Erin Choi accused McMillan of lying about the officer groping her for publicity. 

"She wanted to pull the wool over your eyes," Choi said. "That's how she benefited from this nonsense. She wanted to become the face of Occupy Wall Street."

McMillan, who is originally from Atlanta, came to New York after college to volunteer for the Democratic Socialists of America, a pro-labor party. She said she agreed to a trial after the Occupy Wall Street protests because the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., would not agree to let her plead guilty to a misdemeanor, meaning she would have a felony charge on her record for the rest of her life. 

Vance indicted seven Occupy protesters in 2011 and 2012 on charges to assaulting officers. Two of the protestors pleaded guilty, one was acquitted and three were allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges. 

McMillian gained many supporters during the trial, who saw her case as evidence of police brutality and a symbol of the police crackdown that ended the Occupy protests in late 2011. 

McMillan's supporters laughed incredulously when prosecutors made certain points, which prompted the judge to ban laughter from the audience.