Three people arrested during a 2024 pro-Palestinian protest at Stanford University – mostly students and alumni – formally entered no-contest pleas Monday to reduced misdemeanor charges, an agreement approved by a Santa Clara County judge late last year to avoid a felony trial.
Initially, 13 people were arrested — mostly Stanford students and alumni — during the demonstration, which university officials contend caused at least $300,000 in damages to the university’s executive offices in June 2024. Protesters were calling on the school to divest its holdings from companies linked to Israel over the war in Gaza. Of those, eleven were indicted on felony charges last year.
The defendants who entered the pleas Monday — Cameron Pennington, Kaiden Wang and Gretchen Rose Guimarin — were not among the five defendants who who proceeded to trial, which ended in a mistrial earlier this month.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said the pleas came after Judge Deborah Ryan approved a deal to reduce the original felony vandalism and conspiracy charges to misdemeanors under an agreement reached late last year. They will be required to complete community service and pay restitution, with the amount to be determined at a sentencing hearing scheduled for September.
Five other defendants — German Gonzalez, Maya Burke, Taylor McCann, Hunter Taylor Black and Amy Zhai — went to trial, but jurors deadlocked earlier this month, leading Judge Hanley Chew to declare a mistrial. Jurors were split 8-4 in favor of guilt on conspiracy charges and 9-3 on felony vandalism, short of the unanimous verdict required for conviction.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys for the five defendants are expected to meet Wednesday to discuss a retrial, which District Attorney Jeff Rosen said earlier this month he intends to pursue.
Three more protesters — Isabella Terrazas, Eliana Fuchs and Zoe Edelman — were granted mental health diversions last year. Another defendant, John Richardson, who was not a Stanford student but was enrolled at Loyola Marymount University, entered a youth diversion program and testified during the trial.
Student journalist Dilan Gohill of The Stanford Daily was also arrested during the protest, but prosecutors declined to file charges.
The case has highlighted how divisive views on the war in Gaza have complicated court proceedings, with attorneys sparring from the outset over whether political opinions should factor into everything from jury selection to defense arguments and witness testimony.
It also stands out among campus protest cases nationwide, where charges tied to 2024 Gaza-related demonstrations at Columbia University, the University of Michigan and UCLA were either dismissed or not pursued criminally.
Leave a Reply