Legal influence of Pitt police recommendations remains unclear
By Liz Navratil / News Editor
published: Thu, 8 Oct, 2009
The Pitt Police will recommend that the district attorney drop charges for all Pitt students who met with its police chief after being arrested during the G-20 Summit, but not necessarily because of students’ innocence.
Pitt police Chief Tim Delaney offered to meet with students who were arrested for failure to disperse or disorderly conduct on Thursday, Sept. 24 and Friday, Sept. 25, with the premise that some students inadvertently got caught during interactions between protesters and police on campus during those days. He met with students during the past two weeks.
But, despite his pending recommendations, it’s unclear how much influence Delaney’s words will have in court.
Discussions with lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the district attorney’s office caused Delaney to worry that if he didn’t recommend that charges be dropped for all students, then he would be incriminating anyone he didn’t make the recommendation for.
Instead, Delaney said he decided to recommend that the district attorney drop all Pitt students’ failure to disperse and disorderly conduct charges.
“If there’s somebody here we feel we can’t help, we would not send a ‘no’ recommendation, because we understand that would be incriminating,” he said. “It’s something that I’ve never really thought about.”
Mike Manko, a spokesman for District Attorney Stephen Zappala, said students can bring evidence with them to court and that evidence could include recommendations.
He declined to say how much influence recommendations from Delaney or other Pitt police officials would have, saying instead, “The only thing I can say about these prosecutions is that we are reviewing each case individually. I can’t go into hypotheticals because every case has its merit. Even though the arrests are similar, the facts are different.”
Delaney said he’s been working with Dan Fitzsimmons, an official in the district attorney’s office, and it’s possible that some students will be able to do community service in exchange for having their charges withdrawn completely.
Manko declined to comment on that as well.
Students may avoid judicial board
In a turnaround from its original stance, Pitt administrators don’t plan to send students to the school’s Judicial Board.
Delaney said he’s been meeting with students arrested for failure to disperse and disorderly conduct for about two weeks, and he doesn’t plan to send any of them to the University’s Judicial Board.
Pitt spokeswoman Linda Schmitmeyer said no other University administrators will send them, either.
But there is one loophole.
Shawn Ahearn, a spokesman for the Division of Student Affairs, said anyone can refer a student to the Judicial Board, so if another student or faculty member did so, then a student could still face review.
Student Conduct Officer Deborah Walker meets with all students who are referred to the board. She tells them what they’ve been charged with and informs them of their recommended punishments.
Students have three options, Ahearn said.
Students who think they’re innocent can request a hearing before a three-person panel of faculty, staff or students, who will decide whether they’ve violated the Student Code of Conduct and determine their punishment, if necessary.
If the panel agrees students have violated the code, students can either accept the suggested punishment and end the process or request a hearing to discuss other possible punishments.
Comments
Pitt students
I was a college student 50 years ago. I was a college instructor 30 years ago. I am totally impressed by the college students TODAY. My college years were based on questioning. We were the Woodstock Kids. But TRYING to express an opinion that went "against the grain" was considered a REBELLION. You were a hippy bastard or high on some drug. These demonstrators were echoing the feelings of the majority, not simply their own.
Dismissal
Even if the DA drops all charges the arrest record will still be on file with various legal entities. The only option would be for those arrested to file for an expungement else the record will stay on file forever.
Arrest Record for Innocent Students?
Pittsburgh should give Pitt students opportunities to wipe the record clean. IF Pitt students have to hire attorneys and incur costs, the city of Pittsburgh should reimburse families for their costs. It's unfair, so unfair, if Pitt students have to pay money, do community service, make court appearances, live with the anxiety of uncertainty, because of the apparent incompetent reading of the situation by police, on Pitt's campus. Students were milling about because that's what students do on their own campus. Boundaries were not clear to most anyone. IF Pittsburgh could not protect its students and ensure that outsiders wouldn't endanger student standing during G20, Pittsburgh should not have hosted G20. In addition, Pittsburgh should have provided more "legal" outlets for protesters, including student protesters. Students tend to be appropriately concerned about constitutional rights and other freedoms that are supposed to be guaranteed.
I could forgive police excessiveness but NOT if innocent students have to pay for it. This would not be an acceptable outcome.
Thanks Chief Delaney
I am glad to see that somebody is defending the students at Pitt. While I don't pretend to believe that there were no students who failed to heed the instructions of the troopers, I believe that most were simply caught in a bad spot, and I am convinced that the actions of the troopers was unecessarily heavy handed.
Kudos to U. of Pitt. Police Chief
Pitt police chief Delaney has won my admiration. He's making the right choices on behalf of Pitt students. This is indeed encouraging. When one department sees clearly, it can be an inspiration for other departments/law enforcers, to understand their ethical obligations with clarity vs. obfuscating to win political points. Let us hope the others listen, because Delaney has it right. There can be no justice here---the boundaries between the campus and the city of Pittsburgh and Pitt student rights on their own campus became so (understandably) blurred that we'll never know exactly which students are culpable and which are not, and among the culpable ones, which were just exercising constitutional rights and then responded to what they perceived as violations by police? In sum, there's no fair option but to let them all go free.
On a related topic, I've viewed the video clips on YouTube.com and it appears to me that the police used some excessive force. Pittsburgh should have left more space for citizens to exercise their constitutional rights during G20--peacefully! I understand the police were trying to protect citizen's property--in other G20 cities the damage was way beyond what Pittsburgh had to endure. It's not easy to do everything right---as we all discover when we get in leadership positions. IF the city of Pittsburgh lets the students go, free and clear, I hope we will forgive, learn what we can from it, and move on.
Some of the students who ventured out will be tomorrow's leaders. Go forth and make the world a better place!
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