BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Monroe County Prosecutor Officer announced that it will not file any criminal charges against the 55 individuals arrested for criminal trespass during multiple pro-Palestinian protests held on Indiana University's campus in late April.
Between April 25 and April 27, Indiana State Police arrested 55 protestors at Dunn Meadow, a stretch of lawn on campus that has served as a spot for protests since 1969. Many of those taken into custody were students and faculty members who were also banned from campus.
The university is currently being sued by the ACLU of Indiana due to issuing those bans.
Monroe County Prosecutor Erika Oliphant said in a statement issued on Friday that her office reviewed all the videos, reports and photographs submitted by the Indiana State Police and the Indiana University Police Department before declining to press charges against any of the protestors.
Oliphant's office also questioned the "constitutionally dubious process" that led to these protestors being arrested.
The university has faced criticism for its response to the pro-Palestinian protests due to abruptly changing university policies after learning about the pro-Palestinian protests being planned for Dunn Meadow.
Dunn Meadow has been the designated student protest area at IU since 1969 and had a long history of students staking down tents and raising political signs. But IU abruptly rolled back more than 50 years of free speech assemblage and tradition by suddenly passing a rule change with little warning or chance for anyone to weigh in.
The Bloomington mayor previously criticized the university's response to the protestors with Bloomington police not responding or assisting to the lawn of Dunn Meadows. IU President Pamela Whitten instead turned to campus police and state police to dismantle the tents, which led to clashes between state troopers in riot gear and protestors with paper and cardboard signs.
Faculty and students demanded Whitten step down in the wake of the protests and arrests.
The Monroe County Prosecutor's Office stated in their decision not to press charges that the State was "unlikely to be able to convict these individuals" due in part to the "dubious" process that led to their arrest.
Read the prosector's office full statement below:
The Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office, having reviewed all reports, affidavits, videos, and photographs submitted by the Indiana University Police Department and Indiana State Police, declines to file criminal charges against 55 individuals who were arrested for criminal trespass at IU’s Dunn Meadow on April 25 and April 27, 2024. Based upon the facts and circumstances surrounding these arrests, including, among other things, the constitutionally dubious process by which the University passed and enforced its new policy regarding structures in Dunn Meadow, the State is unlikely to be able convict these individuals at trials on the merits. To attempt to do so would be a poor use of limited resources and wholly inconsistent with the sound exercise of prosecutorial discretion.
Monroe County Prosecutor's Office