Charges withdrawn against Pitt News photographer, others
By Liz Navratil and Lindsay Carroll / Pitt News Staff
published: Mon, 19 Oct, 2009
The city district attorney’s office withdrew the charges for three people arrested during the G-20 Summit, including one Pitt News photographer.
Mike Manko, a spokesman for District Attorney Stephen Zappala’s office, said the office withdrew the charges against Pitt News photo editor Vaughn Wallace “after consulting with the Pittsburgh police and reviewing the evidence.”
“It was determined that Wallace was working with credentialed media at the time,” Manko said.
Police had charged Wallace with failure to disperse and disorderly conduct while he was reporting on the G-20 Summit on Sept. 25.
Pitt biology professor Jared Evans and photographer Shane Dunlap, who The Pitt News credentialed to cover the Summit, also had their charges for failure to disperse and disorderly conduct withdrawn.
Wallace said he was relieved to hear that his charges were being withdrawn.
“I’m excited that we are finally making progress with the district attorney’s office,” he said, “and I’m grateful for the help I’ve received from both my lawyer, colleagues and other friends.”
Cris Hoel, an attorney who represents Wallace and some other Pitt students, said withdrawing the charges is a “welcome development.”
“We are grateful to the district attorney’s office for effecting justice in this case,” Hoel said.
He said their records will not be cleared completely, though, unless they file a petition to expunge their records, which erases any indication of an arrest or criminal proceeding. Such records can affect their abilities to get certain jobs, he said.
Hoel said he hopes other students’ charges are also withdrawn.
“I represent a number of other students who were charged and remain hopeful that charges will be withdrawn in those cases, although perhaps not on terms quite so favorable as those for working journalists,” he said.
Dunlap said he flew from North Carolina, where he interns, for his court hearing this week.
“It was kind of a wasted trip, I guess,” he said. “I’m very glad to hear that the charges were dropped.”
Evans didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The charges against Victor Powell, the other Pitt News photographer arrested while covering the G-20 demonstrations in Oakland, have not been withdrawn. The district attorney's office has already withdrawn charges against Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Sadie Gurman, who was arrested around the same time Wallace and Powell were.
Comments
All charges should be withdrawn
The boundaries in this situation were so confused, and the police presence obviously excessive, as was the police response. The police reminded me of kids who got new toys and had to try them all out. Some protestors from out of town probably did mingle with students---but this was not something Pitt students should be held accountable for. ALL charges should be withdrawn for Pitt students and news representatives and all records should be expunged. This should have been done before the accused had to hire attorneys and accrue costs and funnel down-the-drain-money into the city of Pittsburgh. I feel my outrage all over again as I see this drag on.
Hey, what about our first ammendent rights?!
Fortunately, my children are in colleges in areas where they've learned how to deal with protestors and police---one is just blocks from the White House where there are daily protests and all parties seem to be a whole lot clearer about their responsibilities.
I believe we should respect and support our police; whatever happened at G20, they do spend a good portion of their time protecting us. However, we have to let the police know when they go too far.
I hope the city of Pittsburgh and its judicial system does more of what it must to free innocent people, arrested during what would seem to be a bad situation created by a super-abundance of police who should have repsected Pitt boundaries more than they did.
I disagree with the blanket
I disagree with the blanket statement that all Pitt students should have charges dropped. Unless all parties involved can agree that not a single Pitt student did anything wrong during the protests, the legal system has a responsibility to investigate and prosecute as necessary.
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