This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
A University of New Hampshire prosecutor this week dropped criminal charges against seven of the people arrested during a May 1 pro-Palestine protest after they reportedly accepted plea agreements.
The seven cases were dismissed nearly three months after UNH police charged 12 people with disorderly conduct and trespassing, nine of whom were set to be arraigned in Dover District Court on Wednesday.
The agreements involved 30 hours of community service and a period under which the arrestees must remain in “good public standing”, according to Adeena Ahsan, a UNH graduate student who was not arrested but had been in communication with those offered plea deals.
UNH prosecutor Frank Weeks declined to comment on the nature of the plea deals.
Of the other five people arrested, charges had already been dropped against a “counter-protester” after a friend of his emailed then-President of UNH James Dean that he had been “mistaken for a protester,” according to a reportfrom the Boston Globe.
Cases remain pending against the other four, including against two students who are also facing assault charges. One of them, 21-year-old rising UNH senior Aidan Turner, has said he was mistakenly identified and then violently arrested by Weeks, the UNH prosecutor who is also a police captain. His case is currently set to go to trial on Sept. 10.
The other, 29-year-old graduate student Sebastian Rowan, has been charged with two counts each of assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. His case is currently before a grand jury with an indictment decision expected by Aug. 21, according to court records.
Two other people have trials scheduled for Oct. 2 and 9, respectively. Both have been charged with criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct. It was not immediately clear whether they had been offered a plea deal or not.
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