A 21-year-old Indiana University student charged with biting a state trooper on the wrist during an April 25 Gaza War protest in Dunn Meadow was in court Friday as two dozen people outside the Zietlow justice center protested his arrest.
James Jones, an Indiana University student from Indianapolis, had an initial hearing on three criminal charges: battery against a public safety official, a felony, and two misdemeanors: criminal trespass and resisting law enforcement. He entered a plea of not guilty.
During the brief hearing, Monroe Circuit Court Judge MaryEllen Diekhoff appointed public defender Kyle Dugger to the case and set a June 17 pre-trial hearing.
Jones told the judge he had surgery scheduled and Diekhoff said hearings in the case could be arranged around that.
Jones’ supporters filled the courtroom and followed him into the hall when the hearing ended. Jones, with a victim advocate at his side, said he didn’t want to speak to the media.
He left the justice building and entered a sea of people chanting that the war in Palestine must end. “James saw our support! He saw our solidarity!” shouted a man leading the protest.
The protest leader demanded that charges not be pursued against the more than 50 people who have been arrested in Bloomington and said gatherings of supporters at the justice building will continue until the allegations disappear.
A probable cause affidavit filed in the case against Jones alleges he struggled with Indiana State Police troopers in Dunn Meadow, bit one of them and ran away to elude arrest. He was booked into jail at 7:03 p.m. April 25 and bonded out the next day after posting $700 bail.
The battery charge is a Level 6 felony with a possible jail sentence of six months to two and a half years and a fine up to $10,000. The other two charges are Class A misdemeanors, which carry penalties of up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
In a probable cause affidavit filed May 3, Bloomington ISP Sgt. Ian Portteus says his report “is a synopsis of a rapidly evolving situation documented via audio and video recording.”
He said he was on foot patrol in Dunn Meadow in uniform that Thursday afternoon, “to help disperse protesters who were violating the conditions of their permit to protest.”
Portteus wrote that after several warnings and handing out of fliers explaining the university’s changed-overnight protest policies , “those who chose to disobey those orders were subsequently arrested for trespassing.”
At 4 p.m., his report said, “ISP's tactical intervention platoon, SWAT team and uniformed patrol units descended onto the field to again request the crowd leave and take down tents they had erected that were in violation of their agreement with IU. Hundreds of members of the crowd did not comply.”
He wrote that “numerous members of the crowd threw themselves at officers, and several were arrested.” The report listed a person later identified as Jones “as one of the most serious offenders,” identifying him by an AC/DC T-shirt.
Trooper Benjamin Burris told Portteus that Jones, who he said had changed his shirt, “had bit him on the right wrist.” The report says that when officers located Jones and told him he was under arrest, “he began to run away from us … a member of the IU police department caught up to him and tackled him as he attempted to work his way towards a creek.”
Portteus wrote that he heard Jones tell the IU officer “he was only biting him because the guy put his hand in my face.”
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU student appears in court on allegation he bit a state trooper during Gaza war protest
Most Popular
Comments / 0