LA Metropolis Lawyer declines expenses towards most UCLA, USC campus protesters – NBC Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Metropolis Lawyer’s Workplace introduced Friday it has declined to file expenses towards a whole bunch of individuals arrested in pro-Palestinian and counterprotests on the UCLA and USC campuses final yr, citing inadequate proof.
In an announcement, the Metropolis Lawyer’s Workplace acknowledged that after reviewing greater than 300 arrests from the mass protests in April and Might of 2024, legal circumstances have been declined for most individuals “for evidentiary causes or attributable to a college’s failure or lack of ability to help in identification or different data wanted for prosecution.”
Misdemeanor expenses have been filed towards two folks, each stemming from alleged actions on the UCLA campus that have been “separate and aside from protesting,” though no specifics on their particular person actions have been supplied.
Each folks have been charged with easy battery, whereas one was additionally charged with brandishing a lethal weapon apart from a firearm. The opposite individual was additionally charged with false imprisonment and resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
Three different folks have been referred to a Metropolis Lawyer Listening to, which is a diversion continuing designed to be an alternative choice to prosecution.
“After cautious consideration, we’re submitting legal expenses towards two people and sending three others to Metropolis Lawyer Hearings,” Metropolis Lawyer Hydee Feldstein Soto mentioned in an announcement. “I wish to thank the attorneys in my Prison Department for his or her dedication to the rule of legislation and their dedication to objectively evaluating the proof and referrals obtained on every of those issues.”
The workplace declined to file expenses stemming from 205 arrests made on Might 1 and 5, 2024, at UCLA, together with 40 others made at UCLA on Might 6, 2024.
It additionally declined to file any expenses stemming from 93 arrests made at an April 24 mass protest at USC.
