The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has charged 49 people with misdemeanors for failing to disperse during a pro-Palestinian protest at UC Irvine in May.
One additional person was charged with one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest and one misdemeanor count of vandalism in connection with the protest for an incident on June 6, according to a D.A. spokesperson.
Two UC Irvine faculty members, a UCI teaching assistant, and 26 UCI students are among the 50 charged defendants.
10 of the defendants who were first charged in September appeared in court Wednesday. They include Brook Haley, 51, a Humanities lecturer at the university who was interviewed by NBC4 as he was being detained on May 15.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
“I was standing and chanting and I literally turned to check on the students behind me,” said Haley. “I turned to check on them and to reassure them and at that point, heard an officer yell ‘Grab him’ and that point they took my arms, pulled me back from the line, stepped on my feet and took my property.”
Amr Shabaik, who is the legal director at CAIR-LA, was along several dozen supporters who packed the courtroom Wednesday.
“We feel that is a gross misuse of public funds and to again charge individuals who were simply there protesting, voicing their opinions,” said Shabaik.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
Almost all those charged face one charge of failure to disperse. Two were also charged with resisting arrest, according to a news release from the district attorney’s office. This is the first group of protestors arrested in any of the demonstrations we saw across campuses in Southern California this year who has gone to court.
“I think it was meant to intimidate,” said Haley, who said the university has not disciplined him in any way. He called the district's decision to charge them a political one.
“I think the D.A. and perhaps even the Chancellor himself likes to play to a particular political perception of what Irvine and Orange County may be,” Haley said.
“We encourage protestors to exercise their right to peaceful assembly on any issue,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “However, criminal activity which transcends peaceful assembly will not be tolerated.”
Seven of the ten defendants had their arraignments scheduled for next month and December. Three people were able to enter a diversion program, which in their cases, if they complete 30 hours of community service in three months, they could avoid conviction, according to an attorney representing one of the defendants who qualified.
Wednesday afternoon, UCI sent this statement which said in part:
“UC Irvine has a longstanding commitment to upholding free speech and peaceful protest. While we encourage all members of the campus community to exercise their right to express their views, they are also expected to comply with all applicable laws, university policies, and codes of conduct while doing so. It is important to clarify that the university is not involved in the decision by the Orange County District Attorney's office to file criminal charges against individuals arrested on campus during the May 15 incident.”
