Posted on 03/25/2026 5:24:22 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie
Thirty-three people are now facing criminal trespass charges in connection with a pro-Palestine demonstration last year that caused an estimated $1 million in damage to a University of Washington engineering building.
The 33 individuals arrested during the demonstration have been charged with criminal trespass, a gross misdemeanor. However, they are not facing felony charges tied to the property damage, as prosecutors say there is not enough evidence specifically linking any of them to that crime.
Nearly a year after the demonstration, the defendants appeared before a judge to answer for their alleged actions, pleading not guilty to the charges. By court order, their faces cannot be shown after defense attorneys raised safety concerns and cited instances of some individuals being doxxed.
Defense attorneys challenged the strength of the evidence during Wednesday morning's arraignment hearings, pointing to gaps in the initial police report.
"No explanation of who wrote the report, how they came to know the information in the report, or what they did or didn’t personally observe," one defense attorney stated in court.
“There’s no allegation or evidence demonstrators broke in; the door was open because this is a public institution,” another defense attorney representing the accused stated. “There’s also no indication of where each individual demonstrator, later alleged to be inside the building, got into the building.”
For now, the charges remain in place. Due to the lack of criminal history for many of the defendants, many were released without having to post bail and ordered to appear at all future court hearings.
According to court records, the following people were arrested and face gross misdemeanor charges:
Tayler Hart; Max Rulff; Zachary Wallaced-Wells; Jade Wu; Jessica Schutz; Luisa Ortega Subdiaz; Ginger Newberry; Kimaya Mahajan; Gina Liu; Lea Keating; Akira Junyaprusert; Anna Hattle; Julia Fraczek; Cade Jackson; Jonas Piper; Ty Park; Lucy Zern; Tasbeet Iman; Ricardo Colon-Galvez; Roberta Collison; Ella Tunduwani; Zainab Chattha; Riley Centerwall; Catherine Brown; Brett Anton; Claire Berger; Yasmin Ahmed; Yafate Yared; Geneveve Konijisky; Finn Brown; Bailey Keen; Lucas Nichols-Mcauslan; Sam Sueoka.
A number of those arrested are connected to the university as students or employees. The university had previously suspended about two dozen students tied to the demonstration, though they have since been allowed to return to campus. As part of the release conditions, some defendants have been ordered to have no contact with the university or the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB), where the May 2025 demonstration took place.
“These students do not have a place at this university," Shira Kaufman of the UW Jewish Alumni Association said. "If you are not going to engage respectfully in debate about policy with others who disagree with you, and you're going to take over buildings to try to force your policies on others, I don't care if it's January 6 or this IEB takeover, this is not how we get politics done in the United States.”
"I'm very concerned that the University of Washington has now allowed these students back onto the campus to continue to matriculate towards graduation and towards a degree," Kaufman added. "That is extremely concerning because the University of Washington is not constrained by the rules of evidence, and they could have expelled these students instead of giving them a slap on the wrist of only three quarters missed."
Although the defendants are facing criminal trespass charges, none have been charged in connection with the property destruction. Investigators say there were no security cameras inside the building at the time, and no fingerprints were recovered, noting that demonstrators were wearing gloves.
If convicted, each defendant could face up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.
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Some years ago girlfriend and I were considering grad schools (in different fields) and looked at University of Washington. We chose against it though it was close to her parents (in BC). We lucked out.
Not a sharp pencil in the bunch.
“Not a sharp pencil in the bunch.”
Ricardo Colon-Galvez(the guy with the Galvanized-Colon)is definitely guilty of something…..
Virtue Grandstanding is hard.
I recommend deportation.
I recommend deportation.
Can federal law enforcement use common crowd control techniques to stop mobs at federal facilities?
In another important (temporary) win for President Trump and @TheJusticeDept, the Ninth Circuit says yes. Judges Lee & Tung (Trump*2) over dissent by Judge de Alba (Biden)
I hear Afghanistan is beautiful this time of year.
Good choice.
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