The activist who pleaded guilty to arson and criminal mischief charges for trying to start fires at two pizza shops in the same night will serve three years probation.
Nicky Jo Dawson told Common Pleas Judge Kelly Bigley her crimes were reactions to a violent altercation between a Black woman and an uptown pizza shop manager in 2018.
The manager was charged with assault. He was later found not guilty. Dawson was a highly visible and vocal protester after the incident.
She could have been sentenced to 22-to-36 months in jail, but attorney Bill Diffenderfer tells NewsRadio KDKA's Marty Griffin the judge went with probation after observing Dawson's behavior for three years.
“She had no prior record. She does have a business and she’d worked that type of thing. The chances of her repeating something like this are very remote.”
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