An anti-vaccine protester who allegedly dumped a menstrual cup filled with blood onto California state senators last year has been charged with two felonies and faces up to three year in jail if convicted.
Rebecca Dalelio, 43, has been charged with one felony count of assault on a public official and one of vandalism stemming from the September incident, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
A group of anti-vaccine protesters had stormed the state capitol on the last day of the chamber’s session to voice opposition to bills signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) that allowed the review of medical vaccine exemptions for children attending school.
Dalelio then allegedly threw the feminine hygiene product filled with blood over the balcony of the California Senate chamber’s visitors gallery and onto the lawmakers sitting below, splattering desks and carpets.
A voice was reportedly heard saying: “That’s for the dead babies.”
Lawmakers were immediately forced to leave the chamber and security cleared the gallery.
The Los Angeles Times reported that some state senators left to shower while others moved to a different hearing room and continued working until 3 a.m.
State Sen. Steve Glazer (D) went to the doctor to be tested following the blood exposure.
“Thankful that none of my Senate colleagues appear hurt and we finished out work,” he wrote on Twitter at the time.
California Secretary of the Senate Erika Contreras later wrote in a letter to staffers that that “lab tests confirmed that the substance thrown from the Senate gallery was human blood” but that it was “negative for any blood borne pathogens or infections.”
The Senate took several security measures to ensure the chamber was decontaminated after the “unanticipated attack,” hiring a state-certified health hazard assessment company to clean up the mess, the letter read.