BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A former Buffalo Police officer is facing charges for allegedly harassing police during a looting investigation during the December blizzard, the Erie County District Attorney’s office announced Friday.

Police say that on Christmas Day around 10:50 p.m., 55-year-old Cariol Horne obstructed police officers while they were conducting interviews related to an alleged looting incident on Bailey Avenue. Authorities say she demanded the police officers release the two suspects, refused orders to leave the area, put her finger in the face of and pushed one officer during the incident.

Horne is a high-profile former BPD officer. She was fired from the department in 2006 after she tried to stop her partner from choking a suspect. In 2020, she became the namesake for ‘Cariol’s Law,’ which protects BPD officers who step in if they feel excessive force is being used. She won back her pension in 2021 after the State Supreme Court vacated a previous ruling that upheld her firing.

Later in 2021, she spoke out on her teenage son facing murder and robbery charges related to a killing that happened in March 2021. Her son’s co-defendant, Calvin Clemons, was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison last month for two separate murders, the other having occurred on Christmas Eve in 2020. Her son, now 18 years old, was 16 at the time of the crime. His case remains pending.

In the Christmas blizzard incident, she was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, harassment and disorderly conduct. If convicted of the highest charge, she faces up to one year in jail.