DA Drops Charges Against Seven CUNY Students and Staff Arrested at Pro-Palestinian Occupation

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dropped felony burglary charges against seven CUNY students and faculty who were arrested during a pro-Palestinian encampment at City College earlier this year, ending all prosecution against them.

However, another 10 cases involving people arrested at the City College demonstration are proceeding.

All told, 17 people appeared in court Wednesday morning, marking the first time that those with pending charges for their involvement in pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations have had their day in court since their arraignment.

Hundreds of people were arrested on at pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the city this spring. But while many of the lower-level criminal summonses were tossed last month, as THE CITY reported, 74 demonstrators arrested at City College and Columbia University on April 30 faced more serious misdemeanor and felony charges. Most of those people were handcuffed inside occupied buildings on either campus.

Advocates had raised questions about why those arrested at CUNY’s City College had faced felony burglary charges, while those apprehended at Columbia University were facing misdemeanor trespassing ones. Doug Cohen, a spokesperson for Bragg’s office, said the charges were based on available evidence and declining to elaborate.

Some of those concerns were allayed Wednesday, as the DA’s office ceased prosecuting a number of those felony burglary cases.

An attorney with Neighborhood Defender Services representing some of the CUNY demonstrators didn’t respond to a request for comment immediately. Two others declined to comment. A spokesperson for CUNY didn’t return a request for comment.

No Specific Proof

Before a packed courtroom of CUNY students and faculty garbed in keffiyehs and knitted Palestinian flag pins, Assistant District Attorney Siobhan D’Angelo asked Judge Kevin McGrath to drop the cases of CUNY staff or students in which they had no specific proof of participation in property damage or attempted injury to responding officers.

“The available evidence fails to establish that she personally participated in damaging any of the City College of New York’s property or caused harm to any of the officers present,” D’Angelo said, reading an identical statement for each of the seven cases she sought to have dismissed. “The defendant was also held in custody for more than 24 hours,” D’Angelo added.

McGrath agreed, and the cases were sealed for all seven people.

In five other cases where the accused was not a current CUNY student or staffer according to the DA, the district attorney offered to drop burglary charges against demonstrators if they participated in a diversion program called Project Reset . All five of them rejected that offer and are due back in court in July. Attorneys for those five people didn’t return a request for comment on their decision to turn down the DA’s offer.

Bragg’s office is still pursuing burglary charges against four people who appeared Wednesday, one of whom is a CUNY staffer, describing additional evidence of their involvement during a brief occupation of a campus administrative building on the evening of April 30. Prosecutors said one tried to hit an officer with a bike helmet, another threw a sign towards public safety officers, a third spray-painted security cameras, and a fourth person threw a keyboard at a public safety officer.

City College President Vincent Boudreau said the attempted occupation, which lasted around 15 minutes, led to damaged furniture and several broken computers and a X erox machine inside the college’s financial aid office.

In addition to those cases heard Wednesday, 11 other people arrested at City College on April 30 still have outstanding court appearances scheduled in the coming days, including four more assault cases, a weapons case and six more burglary charges, according to Bragg’s office. Most people arrested at Columbia charged with trespassing for occupying Hamilton Hall are due back in court on June 20.

Following the court hearing Wednesday, a throng of supporters headed to nearby Columbus Park for snacks and coffee. Jonathan Gray, a literature professor at CUNY’s John Jay College, said he was upset that students arrested at CUNY faced felony charges instead of misdemeanors.

“We’re just trying to show support for our students,” he told THE CITY.

Several others gathered in the park declined to comment.

Student protest encampments began at Columbia University in mid-April, and then swept the nation, with demonstrators demanding their universities divest from companies profiting off of Israel’s war in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 36,000 Palestinians since Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack last fall.

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