SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The San Diego City Attorney's Office has decided not to bring charges against 64 pro-Palestine protesters arrested at an encampment on UC San Diego's campus back in May.
In an email to ABC 10News, Andrew Sharp, the city attorney's director of communications, wrote that prosecutors came to this conclusion after reviewing "substantial body-worn camera footage and all other available evidence" over the last five months.
Sharp says the city attorney can reconsider whether to file charges within the statute of limitations, as it does with all other cases it reviews.
None of the people arrested at the encampment were arrested for violence, harassment, threats, nor the possession of illegal substances or weapons, the email states.
"As prosecutors, we must conclude that we can prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt before we file charges," Sharp says. "We're concerned that the community has not received accurate information about this Office's review of the UCSD cases."
Attorneys for the student protesters pointed out evidentiary challenges they used during the UCSD disciplinary proceedings, and they indicated they'd use them again in potential criminal proceedings, the email states.
Graduated UCSD student Samar Ismail is grateful, but wants more to be done.
“We do thank the city attorney for choosing not to file these charges. But I think the next step is to completely drop them and get these off these students records, because some of these students are applying for Higher Ed, and some of these students want to apply for jobs and they, that's the first step to have no charges. They're not filed, but it still shows up that they have an arrest record,” said Ismail.
The city attorney's office referenced a KPBS story, which indicated that the arrest report the university used against the protesters appeared to have been copied and pasted across the board. KPBS broke down the process for the school's discipline hearings; UCSD would have to call a witness to support any written reports used against the students, and the students would have the chance to cross-examine them.
KPBS reported that in one of the cases, the witness called against a student was a campus police officer; however, they weren't the officer who made the arrest, and the student called that out during cross.
Sharp says the city attorney's office told the defense attorney that it may reopen the cases before the one-year statute of limitations if "criminal activity occurs."
The arrests happened the morning of May 6, as police officers took down tents at the Gaza Solidarity encampment on the UCSD campus. Of the 64 people arrested, 40 of them were students and the rest were unaffiliated with the university, UCSD told 10News at the time.
The students did face disciplinary action from the university for their involvement in the protest.
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