Matthew Halbe’s charge of crossing a police line was dropped on Tuesday, while Michael Dranove faces four new charges in addition to defacing government property.
Halbe, a junior in the School of International Service, and Dranove, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, attended their court appointments this week for the charges stemming from their arrest at the “Funk the War: Bad Romance Street Party” protest on March 19.
Halbe’s court hearing was Wednesday. Dranove’s hearing is currently scheduled for May 5, though he attended his arraignment on Tuesday.
Halbe arrived at the D.C. courthouse at 8:30 a.m. and waited half an hour before the doors opened, he said. When the time came to process his paperwork, he caught a break.
“[The clerk] said that the police didn’t submit any paperwork for me,” Halbe said. “My case was completely dismissed, [and] they’re not prosecuting me.”
He said this made him feel both relieved and validated.
“If the police felt strongly enough about my infraction, then they would have done the work just to process the paperwork,” Halbe said.
Dranove had a different experience at his arraignment. The charges the clerk read him included three counts of assaulting a police officer, one count of carrying a weapon and one count of destroying government property.
“They told me [before] that defacing government property was my one charge, and I get there and the clerk couldn’t believe it either. [She said] ‘You’re charged with one, no wait two, no three accounts of assault of a police officer,’” Dranove said.
Dranove’s lawyer told him that Tuesday’s court date would be procedural, so Dranove was shocked when he heard the charges.
“It was actually kind of funny,” Dranove said. “I had no idea that they were charging me with assaulting a police officer. They just keep pulling things out of nowhere.”
He said he is considering trying to get a trial by jury because he believes the residents of D.C. will be sympathetic to his case. His first trial date is currently set for May 5.
“I’m going to ask at that trial to have [it] postponed until September because I’m going home for summer vacation. My lawyer says that most likely the court will accept that.”
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