By Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

On July 15, 19 current and/or former Claremont Colleges students were due to be arraigned in Pomona Superior Court after the LA District Attorney’s Office filed misdemeanor trespassing charges against them stemming from their April 5 protest occupation of Pomona College President Gabrielle Starr’s office.

The arraignment was continued however, “so that my clients can review the offer” presented by  Anthony Macklin from the DA’s office, according to James Gutierrez, the attorney representing the 19 defendants.

Gutierrez said he will be in Pomona Superior Court’s Department R at 8:30 a.m. Friday, August 23 for arraignment and plea proceedings. He will be representing defendants Tali Maximon, Olivia Bozzo, Amanda Dym, Analise Pugh, Eunice Kim, Elinor Attisani, Melia Oliver, Miller Simon, Matthew Njue, Sathyagopal Siddapureddy, Jacob Ragaza, Alice Chapman, Andrea Siame, Mikayla Kidd, Marissa Woodworth, Julianna Deibel, Sophie Kim, Krasimir Staykov, and Diana Truong.

The Courier reached out to Starr for comment. Patricia Vest, Pomona’s senior director of communications, responded. “We refer you to the District Attorney’s Office for information regarding the status of cases,” Vest wrote in an email.

Macklin did not respond to the Courier’s request for comment.

Gutierrez shared a June 26 letter he sent to Starr:

“My clients are being prosecuted for trespassing due to your decision to press charges,” Gutierrez wrote. “I implore you to reconsider and drop these charges, against these righteous students. There is no nobler cause than the one against genocide and apartheid. These young people, your students, risked their bodies and freedoms, to tell those in positions of power that the open and liberal practice of genocide is unacceptable.”

The letter references historical movements “students like yours have led … challenging racial discrimination at lunch counters in Greensboro, to farmworkers in California’s Central Valley contesting illegal injunctions, to Rosa Park’s pivotal stand, refusing to move to the back of the bus — civil disobedience has been a righteous, non-violent tool. This line of righteous indignation continues through your students. In the name of justice and righteousness, I respectfully urge you to show your compassion and drop these charges.”

A July 21 Instagram post by Pomona Divest from Apartheid, a Palestine liberation collective made up of Claremont Colleges students which orchestrated several on-campus protests since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, read in part, “The DA filed the charges, but Pomona created this outcome — criminalizing its own students — by calling cops and refusing to drop the charges.” The activist group also did not respond to the Courier’s request for comment.

The DA alleges the 19 defendants are guilty of trespassing as a result of occupying Starr’s office on April 5. The students said at the time the move was in protest of Pomona College’s decision to remove artwork from the students’ “apartheid wall,” a 32-foot-wide structure outside Smith Campus Center meant as a metaphor representing Israel “preventing Palestinians from returning to their native land.”

After Pomona officials began removing portions of the wall, students massed at Smith Campus Center to protect what remained of the wall. Protesters then moved to nearby Alexander Hall and occupied Starr’s office. Police from Claremont, Pomona, Azusa, and La Verne, some wearing tactical gear, responded and arrested the 19 students for misdemeanor trespassing. Another protester, Sara Orr, was arrested outside the hall for obstructing and delaying an officer, a misdemeanor, but it appears she will not face charges.

All 20 protestors — eight from Scripps, seven from Pomona and five from Pitzer — were transported to the CPD jail on April 5, booked, then released with citations to appear in court.

The 19 defendants charged had been due to appear June 5, but the DA asked for a delay, Gutierrez said.