Almost All UT-Austin Protesters Cases Dropped
By Pooja Salhotra and Annie Xia, The Texas Tribune
Criminal charges were dropped against 46 protesters arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the University of Texas at Austin, according to the Travis County attorney’s office.
Criminal trespass charges were filed against 57 protesters who were booked in Travis County Jail on Wednesday, Travis County Sheriff's office spokesperson Kristen Dark said. As of 5 p.m. Thursday, Dark said all arrestees had been released from custody but did not know whether all the cases had been dismissed.
A spokesperson for Travis County Attorney Delia Garza said law enforcement lacked probable cause in the 46 cases she dismissed. Probable cause is the reason law enforcement provides to justify arrests.
“Legal concerns were raised by defense counsel,” Diana Melendez, a spokesperson for the Travis County Attorney’s Office, said in a Thursday statement. “The Court affirmed and ordered the release of those individuals.”
The county attorney’s office is continuing to individually review cases presented to their office to determine whether it is appropriate to prosecute them, Melendez added.
The arrests occurred during a chaotic demonstration at UT-Austin, where more than 500 students walked out of class to demand that the university divest from manufacturers supplying Israel weapons on its strikes on Gaza.
In a statement to KXAN, a UT spokesperson said that 26 of the arrestees were unaffiliated with the university. Unlike the thirteen previous pro-Palestinian free speech events on campus, the spokesperson said, Wednesday's demonstration had significant participation from outside groups.
"This outside group presence is what we've seen from the affiliated national organization's efforts to disrupt and create disorder," the statement says.
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There were no signs of violence before authorities armed with batons intervened, handcuffing students and pushing protesters back. More than 100 Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, deployed at the request of the university and the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott, were at the scene, in addition to University of Texas police department officers and Austin police department officers.
On Thursday, a DPS spokesperson said their personnel “remained on standby to support UT police in maintaining the peace” on campus.
A Travis County sheriff spokesperson said that all 57 of the arrests were made by the UT police department. Protesters faced criminal trespassing charges, a class B misdemeanor. A spokesperson for the Travis County district attorney said he was not aware of any felony charges brought against protestors.
The Tribune obtained copies of affidavits for 11 of the protesters who were arrested from the Travis County clerk’s misdemeanor records division. Those affidavits gave few details on each individual incident other than to state — in various wording — that each arrestee was told to disperse but did not.
Attorneys helping with jail release estimate that 62 people were arrested Wednesday, according to Nouha Ezouhri, an attorney for the Travis County Public Defender’s Office. Ezhouri said she could not comment on the discrepancy between the attorneys' count of arrestees and the sheriff's office reported number.
As of Thursday evening, she said all detainees had been released, and the majority of those let out had their charges dropped.
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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/25/ut-austin-palestinian-arrests-criminal-cases/.
