Concord Monitor – UNH student arrested for attacking police chief, video shows he was misidentified

A University of New Hampshire student accused of attacking the chief of the university’s police department during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on May 1 was mistakenly identified and subsequently forcibly arrested, the student said in an interview Friday.

During an intermittent physical confrontation between other protesters and UNH Police Chief Paul Dean, 21-year-old student Aidan Turner paced nearby, video footage of the altercation shows, and Turner said. Seconds later, as Dean walked away with a rain cover from a tent he had confiscated, Turner, wearing a tan coat and red sweatshirt, yelled at his fellow protesters to form a circle “arm in arm” — but did not appear to come into physical contact with Dean himself.

Both Turner’s testimony and the video footage contradict the probable cause affidavit in his case, which alleges that Turner “grabbed” Chief Dean and then “grabbed him again.” Turner was charged with assault and trespassing.

“I didn’t touch the chief,” said Turner, a rising senior from Connecticut. “At best, I’d say it’s a case of misidentification. At worst, I’m just a scapegoat for the chief to not find anyone to accuse.”

Dean declined to comment through a UNH spokesman, citing ongoing criminal investigations into those arrested on May 1.

Dean has also been criticized before for interacting with protesters in plain clothes. Turner said Dean did not identify himself and did not know he was a police officer.

“He looked like he was coming back from the golf league or something,” Turner said of Dean.

Of the twelve people arrested on May 1, ten were students.

UNH’s handling of the criminal case against Turner appears to be in contrast to the university’s response to the cases of most other arrested students — including another student who claimed to have been arrested in error but posed as a “counter-protester.” Last month, the UNH Police Department dropped all charges against that student after a friend emailed then-UNH President James Dean saying he had been “mistaken for a protester,” according to a report in the Boston Globe. (Former President James Dean, whose term ended last week, is not related to Police Chief Paul Dean.)

Last week, a UNH Police Department prosecutor offered to drop charges against another arrested student in exchange for 40 hours of community service. The prosecutor promised the student he would make that deal with any other protester who had only been charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.

Turner is one of two students also charged with assault. The other student, 29-year-old Sebastian Rowan, is charged with two counts each of assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. These charges are punishable by two to five years in prison.

In a separate interview Friday, Rowan declined to comment on specifics of the charges against him, saying only that he did not resist arrest or assault an officer. According to court documents, he is accused of grabbing Chief Dean twice and hitting two other officers in the head with a shield.

Assistant Strafford County Prosecutor Walter Ramos, who is prosecuting the cases against Turner and Rowan, said Friday he is still waiting for documents from UNH in both cases and does not yet have enough information to decide whether to drop any of the charges against the men or offer a plea deal. Ramos said he expects to receive the case files in the next few weeks.

In the interview, Turner also accused UNH police of using excessive force during his arrest, which was also captured on video.

According to the video and Turner’s statement, UNH police officer and prosecutor Frank Weeks charged at Turner, put him in a headlock and took him to the ground.

“I definitely think he used too much force,” said Turner, who said Weeks made no attempt to arrest him peacefully. “He saw me, I remember him smiling a little bit, he lunged at me, grabbed me and threw me to the ground. So there was no ‘Stop right now, you are under arrest.'”

Weeks did not respond to a request for comment.

Turner’s arrest came more than an hour after the confrontation between Dean and the protesters. Dean had given Weeks a description of Turner – he was wearing “a tan coat and red clothing” – which Weeks used to identify him, according to the probable cause affidavit in Turner’s case.

Turner said that after his arrest, he asked Weeks to identify Dean, but Weeks refused.

Turner was held overnight in the Strafford County Jail, where he was strip-searched and given a tuberculosis shot.

“Pretty much every person I was arrested with got their papers one by one and left until it was (Rowan) and my turn. Then they told us, ‘You have to stay the night because you’re charged with assault,'” Turner said.

He described the night in prison as “probably the worst experience of my entire life.”

Both Rowan and Turner were arraigned the following day. Rowan has since appeared in court for a hearing, but Turner has not. Turner’s trial is set for Sept. 10, Ramos said.

Turner’s public defender, Katelyn Henmueller, did not respond to a request for comment on the status of his case.

Turner said the experience of being arrested for something he said he didn’t do changed his perception of UNH.

“I was really proud to call myself a student here, and I love it here,” said Turner, who transferred to the university in the spring of his sophomore year. “But after that, it’s really hard for me to look at it the same way I did before.”

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at [email protected].