Spring Break
14 charged with underage drinking, failure to disperse
All pleaded not guilty during arraignment
Jenna Staul
Issue date: 4/30/09 Section: News
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Individuals who do not live on College Avenue were ordered by Judge John Plough of Kent Municipal Court to stay off of the street as a condition of their bail.
"We don't want anymore problems down there," Plough said during the arraignment.
Plough said he would suspend a 30-day jail sentence for those who pleaded guilty and performed 24 hours of community service, paid $150 in fines, wrote letters of apology to the law enforcement departments that responded to the scene Saturday and wrote a one-page paper on civil disobedience. Pre-trial dates were set for those pleading not guilty.
Failure to disperse is a fourth-degree misdemeanor and is described as failure to leave a scene after being ordered to by law enforcement or a public official.
Chris Sestak, an attorney for Kent State's legal services, said he is representing roughly 20 students in connection to the riots. He said failure to disperse is an uncommon charge and often difficult to convict.
"You don't see it often, typically only when it is a mass scene like this or a riot," Sestak said. "They have all these subtle elements. It's a pretty complicated charge."
Sestak said he has not yet individually consulted with his student clients regarding this case.
"They've been kind of trickling in over the last few days," Sestak said.
Sestak said the last time he defended multiple students was in a similar case after Halloween of last year. More arraignments for those arrested on College Street Saturday night will take place tomorrow.
Contact public affairs reporter Jenna Staul at jstaul@kent.edu.
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 6
FlashAlum
posted 4/30/09 @ 3:36 PM EST
Sooooooo....when do these folks get kicked out of school? I think it should have happened, like yesterday. This type of "kids will be kids" attitude when they're setting fires in our streets and pelting our civil servents to come to at the request of taxpayers is inexcusable. (Continued…)
Robin Anderson
posted 4/30/09 @ 7:39 PM EST
Um...the 'judge' apparently don't need your help dumping on the 'accused' before their trials, buttercup! Now, they just might all be guilty as far as I know, but ABSOLUTELY NOT UNTIL THEY'VE HAD THEIR DAY IN COURT!
Um. (Continued…)
Brian Fellows
posted 4/30/09 @ 9:44 PM EST
Yes, I think these retards should be kicked out of school. I wish I could have been there when that cop pushed that dumb bimbo to the ground, that would have been awesome. (Continued…)
Really?
posted 4/30/09 @ 11:14 PM EST
Kicked out of school? For what? So do we start kicking anyone who has an underage or scuffle with the police out? College is a time for growing as an individual too, yes sometimes that involves making mistakes. (Continued…)
student
posted 5/01/09 @ 12:38 AM EST
completely appropriate the judge is making them write a paper on civil disobedience... maybe then they will understand that their riot was nothing like that type of action. (Continued…)
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