The court date for 41 arrested students affiliated with the Brown Divest Coalition will likely be postponed after the University agreed to requests from the students' legal team, according to University Spokesperson Brian Clark.
BDC Spokesperson Jo Ouyang ’26 said the court date will probably fall after the start of the spring semester. The students are currently slated to appear in court beginning next week, according to the Rhode Island District Court schedule.
The students were arrested on trespassing charges Dec. 11 after organizing a sit-in at University Hall demanding that President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 support a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict and divest from companies tied to “Israeli military occupation,” The Herald previously reported.
“There has been no change in status regarding the charges filed on the date of the arrests,” Clark wrote in an email to The Herald.
John Grasso, a criminal defense attorney and adjunct professor of law at Roger Williams University, wrote that it is possible the charges may not be eligible for resolution with a filing from the District Court, which allows for the case to be set aside for a certain period of time — typically one year.
“At the end of the one year period, assuming the defendant did not violate the filing and paid her or his court costs, the matter is dismissed and sealed from the accused’s record almost as if it never happened,” Grasso wrote.
Because the students are charged with “a ‘special’ form of willful trespass created for schools only,” he wrote, it may not be possible to resolve with a filing. “In other words,” he wrote, “one option of admitting responsibility and escaping with a ‘clean record’ in a year may have been taken away from these students as a result of the charge.”
According to Grasso, “the real issue is whether the University actually allows these cases to proceed through the justice system or whether it chooses to dismiss the cases.”
Following a sit-in organized by the BrownU Jews for Ceasefire in November, twenty students were arrested. The charges were later dropped following the shooting of Hisham Awartani ’25 and two other Palestinian students, The Herald previously reported.
“It would be reasonable for the latest group of arrested persons to expect the same ‘treatment’ by the University for what I assume was the same misconduct as those who protested first,” Grasso said.
Following the most recent sit-in, Clark wrote that “the University is prepared to escalate the level of criminal charges for future incidents of students occupying secure buildings.”
Correction: A previous version of this story did not note a one-year filing may not be possible for the 41 students. The Herald regrets the error.
Samantha is a University News editor who oversees the Affinity & Activism beat. She is a sophomore from Tampa, Florida concentrating in Sociology. In her free time, Samantha likes to cook and watch Survivor.
Avani Ghosh is a Metro editor covering politics and justice and community and activism. She is a junior from Ohio studying Health and Human Biology and International and Public Affairs. She is an avid earl grey enthusiast and can be found making tea in her free time.
