Cases against nearly all of those arrested inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall last month were dropped Thursday.
Of 46 The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has dropped cases against 31 people charged with trespass in connection with the occupation, mainly due to a lack of evidence. Prosecutors have told 14 others that the cases will be dropped if they are not arrested within the next six months, but the defendants have rejected the offer and are scheduled to appear again in court on July 25.
The remaining defendant, James Carlson, has two outstanding cases on separate charges including flag burning. Carlson has no ties to the school.
As demonstrations against the Gaza war erupted on several US university campuses, with tensions rising at Columbia University over mass suspensions, protesters occupied a building on the University’s Manhattan campus on April 30.
Dozens of people were arrested the following day as police wearing riot helmets cleared damaged and barricaded buildings.
A Columbia University spokesman previously said those arrested included at least 14 undergraduates, nine graduate students, two staff members and six students from affiliated schools. At least 13 of those arrested had no affiliation to Columbia, the university said.
The 31 people whose lawsuits were dismissed were students or staff members of Columbia University, Barnard College and Union Theological Seminary.
Of the defendants whose cases would have been later dismissed without further arrests, 12 were not Columbia University employees or students, and two were students, according to the district attorney’s office.
At a press conference after the hearing, some of the prosecutors, surrounded by their supporters, said they had rejected the prosecution’s conditional dismissal to show solidarity with those facing the harshest repression across the pro-Palestinian movement.
During a court appearance Thursday afternoon, prosecutors said the defendants have no criminal history and will face an internal disciplinary process at Columbia University.
Columbia University officials said disciplinary proceedings are ongoing but declined to comment further.
Prosecutors said the dismissed case would have been “extremely difficult” to prove because the DA’s office lacked evidence, such as hidden surveillance footage. Some of the defendants were wearing masks, making it difficult to pinpoint their specific actions.
The defense lawyers asked the court to immediately dismiss the charges against all the defendants, saying there was no allegation that they had injured anyone or damaged property.
In the downtown courtroom, some of the defendants wore face masks, some wore kaffiyehs, the distinctive Palestinian scarves with distinctive patterns, and at least two wore sunglasses.
As the hearing began, police found what appeared to be protest placards under seats and confiscated them.
When the prosecutor told the court that Carlson was accused of burning the Israeli flag, some of the defendants sitting in the room could be heard giggling, and police officers instructed them to be quiet.
Hamilton Hall was famously occupied in 1968 by protesters against the Vietnam War.
