More pro-Palestinian protesters take plea deals after UNC arrests. What the court ordered

Several demonstrators arrested during pro-Palestinian protests last spring at UNC-Chapel Hill settled their cases Tuesday in Orange County District Court.

Six defendants cited with second-degree trespassing on April 30 accepted plea deals for deferred prosecution. Their charges will be dismissed if they complete 24 hours of community service and stay out of trouble.

Three defendants who faced more serious charges, ranging from assault on a government or law enforcement officer to resisting, delaying and obstructing law enforcement, and disorderly conduct, got a conditional discharge.

District Court Judge Hathaway Pendergrass ordered them to complete 36 hours of community service and six months of unsupervised probation.

Several protests have been held in the last year on the Chapel Hill campus and at Chapel Hill’s Peace and Justice Plaza outside the courthouse to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip.

The protesters have demanded that UNC take several actions, including that the university disclose and divest from investments in companies that support Israel and end study-abroad programs to Israel.

In all, 37 people were cited with trespassing or arrested on additional charges when police from across the UNC System broke up a four-day encampment April 30 at UNC’s Polk Place.

Three more protesters were charged May 8 when a crowd attempted to block the vehicle of a UNC provost leaving campus. Thirteen protesters were UNC students or former students at the time they were charged.

Focus on support for Palestinians

At a rally before Tuesday’s hearing, the defendants gathered with their supporters at Chapel Hill’s Peace and Justice Plaza for breakfast and to listen as one of the defendants talked about why they were there.

White canvas covered the columns of the courthouse, where anti-police graffiti remained from an Oct. 12 protest. The town is trying to find a way to remove the graffiti without damaging the building, a spokesman has said.

Most of the protesters initially resisted plea deals, opting instead to pressure Orange County District Attorney Jeff Nieman to dismiss their charges. Nieman has declined to take that step.

The plea deals are “not the ideal outcome,” but in no way equate to what the Palestinians are facing, said Jackson Prause, who agreed to a conditional discharge for resisting, delaying and obstructing officers, trespassing, and assault on a law enforcement officer for allegedly pushing an N.C. State University officer to the ground.

The war between Israel and Hamas-led militants has killed over 44,000 Palestinians and injured more than 104,000, the Associated Press reported on Nov. 20. Roughly 90% of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents have been displaced.

In Israel, 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war. Roughly 100 of the 250 people taken hostage in that attack remain in captivity, and about a third are presumed dead, the AP reported.

Settling his case will let him “focus more on forms of resistance, which is a better focus of my time and energy than taking my case to trial, given the relatively low chance of beating my charges,” Prause said.

He joined other defendants and supporters talking among themselves at the plaza after court. A few talked with media at the hearing before the group left, distributing the extra food to hungry passers-by.

Seventeen additional cases are pending, and many are scheduled for a hearing in Orange County District Court in December and January. Five defendants have accepted a conditional discharge of their cases, and 18 have received deferred prosecutions.

This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 1:35 PM.

Tammy Grubb

The News & Observer

919-829-8926

Tammy Grubb has written about Orange County’s politics, people and government since 2010. She is a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna and has lived and worked in the Triangle for over 30 years.