When McDaniel College's annual homecoming parade roars through the streets of Westminster, Rebecca Orenstein, class of '74 and a former city councilwoman, can usually be found cheering for the floats and hugging old friends. This year's celebration was pretty much like those of years past.

Except that she ended up facing a criminal charge of assaulting a police officer - with confetti.

On Oct. 19, Orenstein threw "metallic foil style confetti towards and into my face, assaulting me and causing most of it to cover myself and some throughout the inside of the patrol car," a Westminster police officer wrote in charging documents.

To which Orenstein said, "I think it's unfortunate that a young officer would feel so frightened in an exuberant situation."

She could receive up to 10 years in prison and a $2,500 fine if convicted of the second-degree assault charge, according to court records. Orenstein is also charged with malicious destruction of property in court papers that were served Saturday.

"I have," she said yesterday, "neither the money nor the time for this."

All this is news to officials at McDaniel (until this year Western Maryland) College.

"No one reported anything out of the ordinary," Joyce Muller, a McDaniel spokeswoman, said yesterday.

Orenstein, 60, served as the city's first female council member from 1991 to 1995.

She lost a bid for re-election in 1995, but she has since re-emerged at public meetings as a voice on problems in the city's Pennsylvania Avenue area, where she has lived since 1971.

In particular, she has been highly critical of Police Chief Roger G. Joneckis' administration, which she says should be doing more about drug dealing, prostitution and other criminal activity on her street.

At the homecoming parade, Orenstein was among the hundreds of students and Westminster residents lining the city's Main Street.

She was covered with confetti thrown by people on the passing floats by the time a police cruiser marking the end of the procession approached her, she said.

Not wearing her glasses, she mistakenly thought the officer in the car was a friend of hers, she recalled.

"In my exuberant style, I shook [the confetti] off my clothes and hair and threw it in the car," she said. "I was laughing."

Orenstein said she didn't give the matter a second thought until the moment she was called into police headquarters.

There, she was served with a District Court summons detailing the allegations.

According to the charging documents, Officer Steve Atwood was assigned to follow the parade and form a barrier between the marchers and traffic. He was driving westbound on Main Street in his patrol car when Orenstein approached the passenger side of the front window, reached inside the car with her left hand about a foot and a half from his face, and threw the confetti, according to the court documents.

"When Ms. Orenstein approached the car and threw the confetti, she had a look of anger about her face and did not say a word to this officer at any time," Atwood wrote.

He wrote that he was "startled" and "just briefly unsure as to what had happened" but managed to clear the confetti from his face and return to his duties.

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 20.

Maj. Dean Brewer, a Westminster police spokesman, declined to comment yesterday, saying the charges speak for themselves.