More than 30 people charged in connection with UW building takeover during pro-Palestinian protest
More than 30 people have been charged in connection with last year’s occupation of the University of Washington’s (UW) Interdisciplinary Engineering Building during a pro-Palestinian protest.
Thirty-three people are charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing. But based on the evidence, prosecutors said they cannot determine who caused the damage, so they can only file misdemeanor charges.
“Trespassing in a building is not enough to also make you guilty of a felony. You’ve got to show additional elements that we can’t show with the admissible evidence right now,” Casey McNerthney, a spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, told KIRO Newsradio. “If we could show exactly who caused the damage, then we would be looking at a felony case.”
The offense carries a potential penalty of up to a year in jail and significant fines.
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