Seven ISU protestors plead to misdemeanor trespassing for May 3 Gaza protests

Posted on October 9, 2024

The seven ISU students were arrested on May 3 following a meeting with ISU president Aondover Tarhule at Hovey Hall over the war in Gaza in which the defendants would not leave the premises after the building closed. (Photo courtesy WMBD-TV)

BLOOMINGTON – Nonreporting probation and a fine was the sentence for seven people who were charged earlier this year with illegally trespassing on the Illinois State University campus while protesting the war in Gaza.

The seven people — Steve Lazaroff, 40, Jomareun Richardson, 22, Kevin Dion, 21, Joseph Bloom-Boedefeld, 21 and Rebekah Mangels, 24, Aiden Marcikic, 21, and Daniel Kimball, 20 — pleaded guilty in McLean County Circuit Court to criminal trespass to a building, a misdemeanor, and were sentenced to 18 months court supervision and ordered to pay $739 in fines and fees.

In return for their plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a more serious version of misdemeanor trespassing that could have sent them to the county jail for up to one year. The version they pleaded to carried a maximum of six months in jail.

The seven ISU students were arrested on May 3 following a meeting with ISU president Aondover Tarhule at Hovey Hall over the war in Gaza in which the defendants would not leave the premises after the building closed.

McLean County prosecutors argued that when they met with Tarhule in his office inside Hovey Hall, they remained inside his office until the building closed despite being told to leave.

Campus police were called to remove them from the hall without incident and taken to the McLean County Jail. ISU Police Chief Aaron Woodruff thanked the Normal and Bloomington police departments for their assistance with the arrests.

The students also sued the school, Tarhule, the board of trustees and other officials in mid–May. The suit, which was moved to federal court in August, alleges violations of the students’ 1st Amendment rights among other things.

That lawsuit, according online federal court records, is still in the preliminary stages and a trial, if one happens, is not likely for several more months.

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