Two of three men who took part in pro-Palestinian protests on the UC Irvine campus nearly two years ago were acquitted Tuesday, while jurors deadlocked in favor of acquitting the third defendant.
Adel Shaker Hijazi, 42, and Jacob Andrew Hernandez, 33, were acquitted of misdemeanor refusal to disperse stemming from the May 15, 2024, protests on the campus. Jurors deadlocked 7-5 for acquitting Malik Alrefai, 25, of the same misdemeanor.
Jurors began deliberating at the end of the day Thursday and resumed Monday before reaching a verdict about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday.
Melody Haddad of the Alternate Defender’s Office, who represents Hijazi, told City News Service her client was “certainly relieved, very happy.”
The three defense attorneys representing the men “collaborated, and created a joint defense” of free speech, Haddad said.
The jury foreperson said the panel could not agree on whether it was an unlawful assembly, which would justify the dispersal order from law enforcement, according to Haddad.
“At that point they decided to take it defendant by defendant,” Haddad said.
“They acquitted (Hijazi) because they did not believe the prosecutor proved my client stayed beyond the dispersal order,” Haddad said. “He was on bodycam (video footage) saying he was leaving when he was arrested.”
Hernandez argued he was at the protest working as a journalist. He had to prove beyond a preponderance of the evidence that he was in attendance as a reporter, while prosecutors had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt he was not working press.
Jurors also found there was “no clear and present danger of violence occurring immediately” when UCI police issued a dispersal order, Haddad said. They could not agree whether there was any criminal activity that prompted the dispersal order, she added.
“This is certainly a big win, not only for defense attorneys and the accused but for the underlying cause for what they were protesting for,” Haddad said.
Deputy District Attorney Matthew Bradbury said in his opening statement of the trial that the three were among 49 arrested when law enforcement shut down protests, which started April 29, 2024, in the aftermath of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.
The protests at UCI were peaceful and included students camping out with tents in the physical sciences quad, Bradbury said. But that changed on May 15, 2024, when a lecture hall was barricaded, he said.
The protesters began using “items” from their protest to “block the police, and the administration, from getting into that building,” Bradbury said in his opening statement. Campus police responded and worked to “try to figure out why this lecture hall is being barricaded,” Bradbury said.
The prosecutor pointed to a “human chain” and wooden pallets used to block the way into the building. He also showed jurors how the doors had been tied shut from the inside.
Police ultimately issued a dispersal order about 3 p.m., Bradbury said.
The prosecutor also showed jurors video of a protester replacing a wooden pallet blocking a door after police removed it.
“This is no longer a peaceful, passive protest of rights,” Bradbury said.
He noted that law enforcement did not immediately move to arrest protesters.
“They had been monitoring, watching, taking notes,” he said. “Now it was time to go home. … And that is what this case is about.”
Bradbury said in his closing argument of the trial that, “At some point they have to grab people or get physical with people” when the protesters lingered.
Law enforcement, he argued, was patient and waited for hours before moving in on the crowd.
“That’s why they didn’t run in at 3:30 and zip-tie 200 people,” Bradbury argued.
But they had to issue the dispersal order when police couldn’t get into the lecture hall, Bradbury argued.
The right to free speech was “disconnected” when police saw bungee cords used to hold the doors to the lecture hall closed, Bradbury argued.
The law enforcement response was “highly, highly restrained,” Bradbury said, but he said the three defendants “repeatedly refused” to leave the area.
Alrefai was still on scene at 6 p.m, Hernandez was there at 7 p.m., and Hijazi was at the protest at 7:24 p.m., Bradbury said. There was no evidence they resisted police, “but that’s not what this case is about,” he added.
Haddad said in her opening statement, “This case rests on our First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly.”
Haddad said the only violence on the day in question came from law enforcement.
“They’re not a threat to public safety,” she said of protesters. “It was not an unlawful assembly. They’re acting within their First Amendment rights.”
James Henshaw of the Alternate Defender’s Office, who represents Alrefai, said in his opening statement, “In this country, law enforcement doesn’t get to decide how long someone can express their First Amendment rights.”
Henshaw said law enforcement that responded on May 15 “made assumptions” about what was happening in the lecture hall “and a rush to judgment.”
He said prosecutors could not prove the protest was an “unlawful assembly.”
Henshaw showed jurors photos of the protest suggesting it was as tranquil as it had been since it popped up on April 29 of that year. One of the first responders “knows there’s no classes going on in that” lecture hall, Henshaw said.
There was no violence or threat of violence before law enforcement responded to the scene, Henshaw said.
The gathering took a disturbing turn about 5:45 p.m. when “hundreds of law enforcement came to the scene” as they responded to calls for assistance from the UCI police, Henshaw said.
Madeline Hart of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, who represents Hernandez, said in her opening statement that her client was on scene as a photo journalist.
The three defendants should be found not guilty “because they were present at a lawful, peaceful protest,” Hart said.
And that is especially true for Hernandez, the defense attorney added.
“He was there to take photos,” she said.
“And as a member of the press he cannot be charged with a failure to disperse,” Hart said.
Hart showed jurors video of her client being arrested as he was struck with a baton and zip-tied.
“Five or six officers tackling my client,” she said. “The only `weapon’ he had was a camera. … He’s walking by and grabbed by police, tackled and beaten.”