Rove Protesters Charged
AU Students Agree To Pay $100 Fines

By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 31, 2007

Six American University students agreed late yesterday to pay $100 fines to settle misdemeanor charges stemming from a raucous April 3 protest of White House counselor Karl Rove's visit to the campus, their attorney said.

The cases were filed by the D.C. attorney general's office last week -- nearly five months after the demonstration in which one student mooned Rove's car while some of the others allegedly lay in the street to block the vehicle. Five students were accused of crossing a police line and of disorderly conduct. The sixth was charged with crossing a police line.

The students had not turned themselves in to be formally charged when their attorney, Mark L. Goldstone, began negotiating with the D.C. attorney general's office. Goldstone said a prosecutor proposed the $100 fines for a single charge of crossing a police line. The students would have a record of arrest but not conviction. They accepted the proposal after the close of business yesterday, but Goldstone said he was unable to reach the prosecutor to convey their acceptance. The settlement would not be official until the students appear in D.C. Superior Court early next week.

The lawyer in the attorney general's office handling the case did not respond to messages left after the close of business yesterday.

Earlier yesterday, with plea discussions underway, Melissa Merz, spokeswoman for D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer, explained the decision to prosecute the case. "We strongly support people's constitutional right to protest, but it has to be done within the context of following law enforcement directions aimed at ensuring public safety and order," Merz said.

The students said the protest took place after campus Republicans had invited Rove to speak. The demonstrators crafted a plan to enact a "citizens arrest."

"We could not allow somebody of that stature who has had such a detrimental effect on the country to come to our campus and have no statement of disapproval accompany that," said Michael Canning, 21, one of the students.

About 80 students participated in the demonstration and 15 to 20 tried to block Rove's car, said Michael McNair, director of American University's public safety department, the campus police.

Until last week, the students thought the activities were behind them. Then came news of the criminal charges against six of the demonstrators.

Soon after the protest, the U.S. attorney's office delivered a subpoena to the university seeking information, said David E. Taylor, chief of staff to university President-elect Cornelius M. Kerwin. The Secret Service pursued the investigation and visited the campus Friday with notice of warrants. The dean of students then relayed the news to the six.

"I was pretty much in shock," said Elizabeth Sanders, 20, a senior, of the moment she learned of the warrant for her arrest.

In addition to Canning, also a senior, and Sanders, Goldstone identified the others facing charges as Joel Gardner, 20; James Worsdale, 20; Eugene Johnson, 19, and Matthew McCoy, 21.

Goldstone, who has represented political demonstrators for more than 20 years, said it was highly unusual that no arrests were made at the time of the demonstration, which is when police usually act against suspected lawbreakers during protests.

"It's suspicious that the government waited until the first day of school, in effect, to serve them with arrest warrants," Goldstone said. "We suspect there was some political pressure put on the government to prosecute because of it being Karl Rove."

Darrin Blackford, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said he could not comment on "an ongoing investigation."

McNair said the reason no arrests were made the night of the protest was because campus police and the Secret Service were taken by surprise by the demonstrators' tactics. No D.C. police were on the scene. McNair said the priority was to remove the students and let Rove's car exit the campus.

"Once that happened and the situation was over, there was so much chaos there it would not have been a prudent thing to make arrests there," McNair said. Campus police can make arrests. "When we finally regrouped, we agreed to get video and any kind of witness statements and proceed from there."

McNair said the campus police originally focused on using the campus disciplinary process. Five of the six students were accused of violating the campus code of conduct, and at least some were assigned community service.

"The Secret Service made the decision" to present the evidence to the attorney general's office, McNair said.

Staff writer Marissa Newhall contributed to this report.