Arminta Jeffryes was arrested while protesting police brutality. Then the police department played an unusual role in her court case.

A New York Police Department lawyer stepped in to prosecute the jaywalking charge against her, in a low-level court that usually has no prosecutors at all. While many similar cases get dismissed without any admission of guilt, Jeffryes' lawyer says the police attorney wouldn't agree to a dismissal unless Jeffryes said her arrest was legitimate, which she contests.

Instead, Jeffryes and another activist are trying to stop police lawyers from serving as prosecutors, a practice that's emerged in the last two years in the nation's biggest city.