This story was reported and written by VPM News.
Charges were dropped Friday morning for seven protesters arrested earlier this year during a pro-Palestinian protest at Virginia Commonwealth University — and more dismissals are pending.
Attorney Alex Taylor said he was proud to represent three of the protesters because they were advocating for a cause.
“It wasn't that many years ago when there were students that looked a lot like me advocating on behalf of a civil rights movement,” Taylor said. “So I can feel for them, because I'm aware of other students like me in a very similar situation.”
Taylor said he was glad his clients’ charges were dropped, as all have bright futures ahead of them. He called law enforcement’s response to the protest excessive.
“Some students weren't throwing bottles. Some students hadn't built up, like, little forts. Some students just stepped onto the scene,” Taylor said.
During the April 29 protest, in which students demanded the university divest from Israel-affiliated investments and other partnerships, 13 people — including six VCU students — were arrested and charged with trespassing and unlawful assembly.
According to defense attorney Kaylin Cecchini, who represented three of the protesters, an agreement was reached earlier this summer with Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Dorsey.
That agreement entailed 40 hours of community service hours and a one-page essay about what the protesters could have done differently to “legally exercise” their First Amendment rights.
Dorsey confirmed that all protesters were offered the same plea deal — regardless of whether they were students.
Although Cecchini was preparing to take the cases to trial based on free speech protections, she encouraged her clients to accept the agreement even though “they were asking for a tacit admission, basically, that they did violate the law.”
Cecchini said the essay premise was problematic and an example of the government “abusing the disparity in power in plea bargaining” — not unlike some of the agreements made with protesters after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
“If you're guaranteeing a dismissal for a bunch of college students who have real-world jobs coming ahead of them, they don't have a prior criminal record, they'll basically jump through whatever hoops you tell them to jump through for a guaranteed good outcome,” Cecchini said.
“A lot of them feel that it was very demeaning to make them write an essay about what they would have done differently, when they really haven't done anything wrong.”
Dorsey directed questions about the rationale of requiring the essay to Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin, who told VPM News her office did not comment on pending cases and did not respond to a follow-up request for comment.
VCU students are also subject to disciplinary proceedings through the university’s conduct office.
Two students told VPM News they also had to submit the free speech essay to the conduct office. They said they’re on probation for at least another couple of months, though the status hasn’t impacted their ability to take classes. VPM News is not identifying them as they fear retribution for speaking out.
A spokesperson for VCU said the university would not discuss potential disciplinary proceedings or actions for individual students — but confirmed that President Michael Rao did not get involved in the court proceedings.
In June, after meeting with University of Mary Washington President Troy Paino, Fredericksburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Elizabeth Humphries dismissed trespassing charges against nine UMW students arrested in an April pro-Palestinian campus protest.
She also agreed to drop charges against three others who weren’t students, pending several months of good behavior and the completion of 20 hours of community service.
The Fredericksburg Free Press reported in April that Paino assured students he would ask for the protest-related charges to be dismissed and said they wouldn’t face academic suspension or expulsion for participating in the protest.
A spokesperson from UMW did not immediately respond to an inquiry from VPM News about the university’s disciplinary process for arrested students.
Humphries told VPM News it would be a stretch to call the handful of “pup tents” in the peaceful demonstration an encampment, and said her office will grant expungements of arrest records if requested.
“With the absence of any kind of violence, and a situation where there was no pre-written rule with respect to the students [using tents while practicing First Amendment rights], criminal intent was a little bit difficult to establish under all the circumstances,” Humphries said.
However, she defended law enforcement officers making arrests after students refused to take the tents down, citing safety concerns. She said students had put out a call to action to students on other campuses – and to the public – to join in the encampment.
“We simply cannot have a mass demonstration of unknown numbers on the campus for that to be a safe situation,” Humphries said. “Those situations can escalate.”
Additionally, Humphries said allowing tents to remain up for one protest would mean the university would have to allow them for all protests — including ones that could be much more dangerous than the non-violent protest on UMW’s campus in April.
“The university administrators have to be content neutral on how they administer these rules,” Humphries said.
Attorney Jeff Fogel, who’s representing two protesters arrested at another pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Virginia, said a plea agreement was also reached for the bulk of the 27 protesters arrested in Charlottesville.
Fogel said that agreement required two months of good behavior and payment of court fees — less than $100 each — before their cases were dismissed.
The Daily Progress previously reported that Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley chose not to seek jail time for anyone arrested in the campus protest “in accordance with his long-standing policy not to incarcerate people facing a trespassing charge for the first time.”
“This Commonwealth’s Attorney said that’s his office policy,” Fogel told VPM News. “So he didn’t do anything worse or better than he normally does.”
Fogel added a few cases are still pending for protesters who rejected the plea agreement because they did not want to admit guilt. Those are subject to ongoing conversations with the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
“Those were people who felt they wanted to be exonerated, and didn't feel like they should pay a fine or acknowledge that they did anything wrong,” Fogel said.
University disciplinary charges have also been dropped for UVA students who were arrested — which Fogel said means their transcripts and diplomas will be released. Some of the hearings were on hold over the summer because of a dispute between students and administrators about the disciplinary process.
“One of my clients graduated, but they wouldn’t release her transcript, so she couldn’t get a job,” Fogel said. “That was true of three or four people.”
A spokesperson for UVA told VPM News that each of the students facing charges “was offered the opportunity to pursue informal resolution in lieu of a University Judiciary Committee (UJC) trial. As of today, all of the students involved have accepted that option and brought these matters to a close.”
The spokesperson declined to comment about whether or not UVA President James Ryan had been in contact with Hingeley’s office regarding the dismissal of students’ criminal charges or the plea deal.
Hingeley also declined to comment because of the cases still pending.
During the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, Hamas killed roughly 1,100 Israelis and abducted about 250 people; approximately 8,700 Israelis have been injured from Oct. 7, 2023 through Oct. 3, 2024, according to reports from Gaza’s health ministry.
Roughly half of the hostages remain unaccounted for, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While the number of Palestinians killed and injured in Gaza is contested, the health ministry there says at least 41,000 have died and more than 96,700 have been injured.
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