Greater than a 12 months and a half after a gaggle of pro-Palestinian activists had been accused of inflicting in depth property injury at Stanford College’s govt places of work, 5 of the unique defendants are set to face trial subsequent month on felony vandalism fees.
The 5 defendants continuing to trial are Maya Burke, German Gonzalez, Taylor McCann, Hunter Taylor Black and Amy Zhai.
The remainder of unique 12 defendants have entered a court-supervised psychological well being diversion program that enables them to keep away from felony prosecution.
This group contains Gretchen Rose Guimarin, Cameron Pennington and Kaiden Wang, who informed the courtroom Monday that they intend to simply accept a judge-offered plea to lesser misdemeanor fees. The defendants headed for trial are anticipated to return to courtroom for trial project subsequent week, whereas these planning to take the plea deal will evaluate its phrases with Santa Clara County Superior Court docket Choose Deborah Ryan in January. The main points of the settlement weren’t instantly out there, although the courtroom indicated it may cut back felony fees to misdemeanors.
The remaining defendants, who’ve both accepted a plea settlement or entered a diversion program, embody John Richardson, Zoe Edelman, Eliana Fuchs and Isabella Terrazas.
Throughout Monday’s listening to, Deputy District Legal professional Rob Baker objected to permitting the group to separate their circumstances and settle for the diminished fees.
“The defendants have made no efforts to repay or reimburse Stanford for the damage that they caused,” Baker informed Ryan. “This whole case was the defendants trying to impose their will on Stanford University.”
Protection legal professional Jeff Wozniak, representing Guimarin and showing for Pennington, pushed again, describing Baker’s characterization of the plea deal as unfounded.
“There has been extensive discussion, and the people who are accepting your offer are electing not to go to trial,” he informed the decide.
Choose Ryan finally allowed the defendants to maneuver ahead with the plea supply. Particulars of the settlement weren’t instantly out there and shall be addressed in January, after procedural questions on severing the defendants’ circumstances are resolved subsequent week.
A whole lot of scholars nationwide have been arrested in Gaza-related campus protests because the conflict started, however solely a small fraction have confronted felony fees or been despatched to trial. Attorneys for the Stanford defendants — in addition to activists — have accused the Santa Clara County District Legal professional’s Workplace of in search of overly punitive penalties for what they describe as a free-speech protest.
Rosen has beforehand argued that the protesters crossed a line once they broke into and broken the workplace. “Speech is protected by the First Amendment. Vandalism is prosecuted under the penal code,” he stated.
Prosecutors estimate the injury from the occupation at $360,000 to $1 million, a determine scholar activists have known as “an exaggeration.”
Protection legal professionals and supporters have additionally criticized the DA’s use of a felony grand jury — a course of they are saying is unnecessarily secretive — to indict the activists. The indictment, which supersedes fees filed in April, sends the case on to trial and bypasses a preliminary listening to the place either side would usually current proof and testimony to a decide.
In an announcement, scholar group Stanford Towards Apartheid in Palestine stated the case “is about more than these individuals, but intended to chill the movement and free speech as a whole,” including that the costs “should never have been a felony case.”
The Stanford prosecution comes as universities nationwide face heightened scrutiny over their responses to pro-Palestinian activism. Final 12 months, one Stanford subcommittee documented proof of antisemitism and anti-Israel bias on campus, whereas one other reported widespread Islamophobia and discrimination in opposition to Muslim, Arab and Palestinian college students.
