Six AU students agreed to pay $100 "post-and-forfeit" fines when they appeared in the D.C. Superior Court Wednesday as settlements of misdemeanor charges that they crossed a police line during a protest against Karl Rove on April 3, according to two of the students involved in the case.
Elizabeth Sanders, a senior in the School of International Service, and James Worsdale, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said because they and the other students agreed to pay the "post-and-forfeit," none of them will have to stand trial or will have a conviction noted on their criminal records in connection with the incident. However, they will all have records of their arrests. The D.C. Attorney General's office also agreed to drop an additional charge of disorderly conduct against the students.
The other four students who the Attorney General issued arrest warrants for were Michael Canning, a senior in the School of Public Affairs; Joel Gardner, a junior in CAS; Eugene Johnson, a sophomore in SIS; and Matthew McCoy, a senior in SIS, according to Mark Goldstone, the lawyer who represented all six students.
All six had participated in a protest following Rove's speech to AU's College Republicans. Some protesters had initially attempted to make a citizen's arrest of Rove, and 16 of approximately 80 protesters gathered outside the Ward Circle Building attempted to prevent Rove from leaving campus by lying in front of his car. Public Safety officers and Secret Service agents removed the protesters from in front of Rove's car, ending the five-minute-long incident, The Eagle previously reported.
Johnson, one of the 16 students who laid in front of Rove's car, said he was shocked when he found out from Dean of Students Faith Leonard that he might be issued an arrest warrant.
"Five months after the protest went down, I get served a warrant, and five other people also get served a warrant out of the scores of people who were involved in that protest," he said. "I knew I was going to be reprimanded by the school ... but when I heard I was going to be served a warrant, the first thing I thought was, 'We're obviously a symbol, we're obviously being used' ... because with the 2008 elections coming up, both major political parties are going to be visiting college campuses."
"They're going to be making strong appearances," he added. "This is obviously a message this administration is trying to send."
All six students turned themselves in at 6 a.m. on Monday. They came in early in an attempt to complete the entire arraignment process in the course of one day. However, they ended up staying in a jail cell at the Metropolitan Police Department's Second District Station on Idaho Avenue for eight hours because it took longer than expected for MPD officers to process them. The officers wanted to hold the students overnight, but Goldstone was able to negotiate for each of them to post $100 in bail money. That bail money will now pay for each student's fine, Worsdale said.
Johnson said his parents were angry at the Bush administration and at the fact that the arrest warrants came so long after the protests had occurred.
Worsdale said his parents were disappointed at the way the university and the Secret Service handled the situation.
Sanders said her parents were concerned about the effect her Judicial Affairs and Mediation Services punishment would have on her ability to get loans and school grants.
JAMS punished multiple students for their actions following the protest, but Associate Dean of Students Sara Waldron said the six students who were facing criminal prosecution would not receive additional punishment from the university, The Eagle previously reported.
The university initially provided information on the protesters when they received a subpoena shortly after the protests occurred, The Eagle previously reported . However, Worsdale said he believes some information may have also come from some members of the College Republicans.
Will Haun, president of College Republicans, said any claims that the College Republicans were involved in the investigation are erroneous.
"This was an investigation that the Secret Service initiated, that the Secret Service worked hard to bring to fruition," he said. "As an organization, AU College Republicans viewed it as a Secret Service investigation."
Haun said he cannot speak to whether or not individuals chose to involve themselves in the investigation.
Sanders and Worsdale said the incident won't deter them from voicing their opinions in the future.
"I now realize how future protests may potentially be handled, but it's not going to deter me from taking actions that I think need to be made," Sanders said.
"We all learned from the experience that it's not pleasant to get caught, but it is still necessary sometimes to take such radical actions," Worsdale said.
Johnson said that while he is not nearly as angry with AU's actions as he was initially, he said he is still concerned that the university is trying to project an image of promoting activism but not doing so in practice.
"You can't have it both ways," he said. "You can't have the most politically active campus in the country and not expect us to be active. It's not just a statistic - it's going to be reality."
Staff writer Allie Feras contributed to this report.
