30 cases dismissed against pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at Columbia University building

A New York judge on Thursday dismissed trespassing charges against 30 people who were among dozens arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in April at Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, with prosecutors citing a lack of evidence. Of the 46 people initially arrested, 15 defendants remain facing charges, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said. Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters were accused of unlawfully entering the university’s Hamilton Hall on April 30 and barricading themselves inside before the university requested assistance from the New York City Police Department. After they were removed from the building, many of them were charged with third-degree trespassing, a class B misdemeanor. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at the time that he intended to review each case and make decisions based on facts and law. In the past, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has declined or delayed prosecution in cases where large numbers of people were arrested during civil disobedience. During Thursday’s court hearing, Judge Kevin McGrath dismissed 30 counts of trespassing against people with no prior criminal record. Another defendant had his case dismissed earlier, leaving a total of 31 people no longer facing charges. “At the time of the charged acts, the defendants were either employees of Columbia University or students enrolled there and are now subject to student or employee disciplinary proceedings,” the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a press release. In his motion to dismiss the charges Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Stephen Millan pointed to “extremely limited video footage,” adding that “the surveillance cameras were immediately obscured by certain defendants” whom prosecutors could not identify. The available video evidence “fails to establish or prove” that the 31 people were involved in damaging university property or inflicting harm on anyone, making it difficult for prosecutors to prove anything other than trespassing at trial, prosecutors said. Making matters worse, the students in Hamilton Hall were wearing face masks, making it difficult to link the students to specific actions, according to a police official. Columbia University declined to comment on the legal proceedings when contacted by CNN on Thursday. Protesters ‘unanimously’ reject offersFourteen of the defendants still facing charges — 12 of whom were neither Columbia employees nor students — have been offered an adjournment to dismiss the case (ACD), the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said. An ACD allows a court to adjourn a defendant’s case – with the possibility that charges against the accused will be dropped – if the defendant does not plead guilty to further crimes.But these defendants have rejected the offer, they said at a news conference outside the courtroom after Thursday’s hearing, speaking to protesters wearing keffiyehs, a traditional Palestinian headscarf. “We stand here today, united by our action and the Palestinian cause,” one of the protesters said. “The state has once again attempted to divide us — by dismissing some of our cases and making outside offers to others according to their agitator narrative,” adding that they reject the division, which they say is designed to “preserve the sanctity of Columbia University, which is not an institution in the City of New York, but always above and separate from it.” “All of us who participated in the liberation of Hind’s Hall were driven by the same need to escalate the situation, to escalate for Gaza, to resist the cruel genocide of our brothers and sisters in Palestine,” the protester continued, referring to Hamilton Hall by another name given to it by the protesters. “We exercised our collective right to oppose the U.S. war machine by laying our bodies on the years of Columbia, one of its best-oiled domestic components.” The protester said the defendants unanimously rejected offers to form a “common front against state oppression.” The 14 defendants are scheduled to appear in court again on July 25. “The only charge that is different is that they were not currently enrolled as a student or not employed by the university,” said public defender Matthew Daloisio, who is representing 43 defendants. Daloisio argued those defendants were subjected to the same police raid and suffered the same injuries as everyone else during the NYPD raid. A 15th defendant, 40-year-old James Carlson, was arrested for burglary at Columbia University and is charged with third-degree trespassing by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, according to court records. He is also charged with arson from a separate incident. He has pleaded not guilty to both counts, according to court records. On Thursday, Carlson appeared in court, where the prosecutor described how he is accused of participating in the Hamilton Hall protests. Carlson is accused of damaging an NYPD camera and burning an Israeli flag. As the district attorney described the flag burning in the courtroom, some of his supporters in the courtroom giggled, prompting the court clerk to reprimand them and tell them to be quiet. The district attorney said the students whose cases were dismissed are facing school disciplinary proceedings. CNN’s Emma Tucker contributed to this report.