Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Deputies stand guard outside Building 10 at Stanford University, where pro-Palestinian protesters broke into the university president's office and occupied it before being arrested on June 5, 2024. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced felony charges against 12 pro-Palestinian protesters on Thursday, who occupied the university president’s office last June. (Joseph Geha/KQED)
All 12 defendants, including eight current Stanford students, face felony charges of vandalism and conspiracy to trespass, among the most serious charges against demonstrators involved with pro-Palestinian campus protests in California last spring.
Warrants have been issued, and the protesters will be arraigned later this month, District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced on Thursday.
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“Dissent is American, vandalism is criminal,” he said during a press conference Thursday. “Today, I’m announcing charges against 12 people who intentionally crossed the clear and bright line between dissent and destruction.”
Wearing masks, the protesters forced their way into the building where the Stanford president’s office is located early in the morning of June 5. In a “highly organized and orchestrated manner,” they broke windows and furniture, splashed fake blood and disabled security cameras, causing an estimated $700,000 in damages, according to the DA.
“This was not an anonymous space in a nondescript building,” Rosen said. “It was a working office of people dedicated to students.”
A public safety officer was also allegedly injured while attempting to remove the students.
In an open letter to campus sent shortly after the incident, Richard Sallar, Stanford’s then-interim president, and Provost Jenny Martinez said they were “appalled and deeply saddened” by the protesters’ actions. Tools found in protesters’ backpacks included an electric grinder, hammers, crowbars, chisels, screwdrivers, goggles, numerous straps and cables, the DA said.
“We refuse to leave until Stanford administration and the Stanford Board of Trustees meet our demands and take action to address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the protesters, identifying themselves as an “autonomous group of Stanford University students,” posted in a message on social media, shortly before police arrested them.
Rosen said the activists had been planning their action for days.
“They had operational plans. They had lookouts. They were scouting out the area to see what time either uniformed police officers or private security would be around,” he said. “They had multiple layers of clothing. They brought a lot of food with them. They planned to be there for a long time.”
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen presented a do-it-yourself guide, saying it closely matches what the students brought with them and how they broke in, suggesting they did some research beforehand. (Gilare Zada/KQED)
The action took place alongside larger campus demonstrations last spring aimed at pressuring the university to divest from companies that support Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
The group also spray-painted graffiti on the facade of the office with messages praising “the martyrs,” threatening death to “pigs” and police and accusing Stanford of being complicit to genocide, according to the DA’s office.
As of Thursday morning, at least four of the suspects had self-surrendered to authorities for booking, Rosen said. He noted that if convicted of the charges, they could face a maximum sentence of nearly 4 years behind bars. But he said his office did not intend to pursue jail time.
“I don’t think this is a prison case. I would like these individuals to plead guilty, accept responsibility for what they did, make restitution to Stanford for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage they caused,” Rosen said. “I don’t know that it’s a case where I would want these individuals sitting in jail for these actions.”
“The way I see it, they damaged and destroyed all of this property and caused all this vandalism, and I think that their punishment should be cleaning things up,” he added.
The protesters, ranging in age from 19 to 32, are all U.S. citizens, Rosen said, a point of particular relevance given the Trump administration’s zealous push to revoke the visas of international students linked to the pro-Palestinian movement.
Thursday’s announcement comes a month after the DA’s office declined to charge a student journalist who was arrested along with the protesters in the president’s office on June 5. The decision follows a lengthy investigation that found that Stanford Daily reporter Dilan Gohill was there to document the protest, not participate in it — an argument made by free speech groups, who for months demanded he be cleared of any criminal liability.
“This office supports a free press and recognizes that the law gives reporters latitude to do their jobs in keeping the public informed,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement last month announcing the decision. “We have no evidence that this student did anything other than cover this event as a journalist.”
Since the arrests, a number of Stanford student groups have rallied behind the 12 protesters, decrying the charges against them and slamming the university for considering such severe disciplinary action.
During one campus demonstration in October, nearly 50 students held a “people’s tribunal” to protest the disciplinary proceedings and condemn the Board of Trustees’ refusal to divest from companies tied to Israel.
James Wheaton, a journalism law professor at Stanford and UC Berkeley, who has advised Stanford Daily reporters on First Amendment-related issues, said today’s charging decision should come as no big surprise.
“It appears to be a pretty open and shut case of a trespass,” he said. “And if there was any damage done to the building, then it’s vandalism as well, neither of which is protected by the First Amendment right to peaceably assemble.”
The protesters chose to participate in an act of civil disobedience to fight against what they considered an injustice, Wheaton said. But it still means they broke the law, no matter how noble the cause.
“So, you break the law knowingly in order to make a point, and then you get arrested and charges may or may not be filed,” he said. “But you can’t complain about being charged.”
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