Top Democrat's transgender daughter sentenced to probation for assaulting police officer

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The transgender daughter of House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass, was sentenced to just one year of probation Wednesday after reaching a deal with a Boston court concerning a number of charges she faced stemming from her role in a violent protest in January.

Riley Dowell was arrested by Boston police during the protest after allegedly spray-painting a monument and assaulting a police officer. She was ultimately charged with assault and battery on a police officer, vandalizing property, tagging property, vandalizing a historic marker/monument, and resisting arrest. 

According to local Fox affiliate WFXT, Dowell, who was 23 at the time of the arrest and plead not guilty to the assault and vandalism charges, will be required to write a letter of apology to the officer she is accused of assaulting as part of the deal.

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Riley Dowell is arraigned at Boston Municipal Court, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Dowell, the daughter of U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts was arrested during a protest Saturday night on Boston Common and later charged with assault after a police officer was injured. Dowell, 23, is accused of defacing the Parkman Bandstand Monument with spray paint before she was arrested, officials said.  (David L Ryan/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

The news of her daughter's arrest broke when Clark took to social media to address the incident immediately after it occurred. "I love Riley, and this is a very difficult time in the cycle of joy and pain in parenting," she tweeted. "This will be evaluated by the legal system, and I am confident in that process."

Following Dowell's arraignment just days later, Clark condemned violence against police at an unrelated event in Boston. "I condemn violence against everyone, whether that is against police or against community members as a result of any person or government entity," she said.

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House Democratic Whip Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) speaks at an event to reintroduce the Child Care for Working Families Act, at the U.S. Capitol on April 27, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Despite her denouncement of violence against police, it was later revealed that Clark scrubbed an anti-police article from her official website ahead of taking the number two position in the lower chamber for House Democrats.

The article, titled, "Defund the police makes some Democrats uncomfortable. That’s the point, activists say," was posted on Clark's official website under her "In the News" section where it remained from June 2020 before disappearing sometime after December 9, 2022.

Riley Dowell, center, with an attorney, left and father, Rodney S. Dowell, right, waits during arraignment at Boston Municipal Court, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, in Boston. Dowell, the daughter of U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts was arrested during a protest Saturday night on Boston Common and later charged with assault after a police officer was injured. Dowell, 23, is accused of defacing the Parkman Bandstand Monument with spray paint before she was arrested, officials said.  (David L Ryan/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

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In the article, Clark defended Democrats' 2020 police reform bill, the Justice in Policing Act, as "a beginning, not an end" and said that it is worth exploring "how we allocate our resources to move police from being a culture of being warriors to being guardians."

Fox News' Houston Keene contributed to this report.