Legal influence of Pitt police recommendations remains unclear

The Pitt Police will recommend that the district attorney drop charges for all Pitt students who… The Pitt Police will recommend that the district attorney drop charges for all Pitt students who met with its police chief after being arrested during the G-20 Summit, but not necessarily because of students’ innocence.

Pitt police Chief Tim Delaney offered to meet with students who were arrested for failure to disperse or disorderly conduct on Thursday, Sept. 24 and Friday, Sept. 25, with the premise that some students inadvertently got caught during interactions between protesters and police on campus during those days. He met with students during the past two weeks.

But, despite his pending recommendations, it’s unclear how much influence Delaney’s words will have in court.

Discussions with lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the district attorney’s office caused Delaney to worry that if he didn’t recommend that charges be dropped for all students, then he would be incriminating anyone he didn’t make the recommendation for.

Instead, Delaney said he decided to recommend that the district attorney drop all Pitt students’ failure to disperse and disorderly conduct charges.

“If there’s somebody here we feel we can’t help, we would not send a ‘no’ recommendation, because we understand that would be incriminating,” he said. “It’s something that I’ve never really thought about.”

Mike Manko, a spokesman for District Attorney Stephen Zappala, said students can bring evidence with them to court and that evidence could include recommendations.

He declined to say how much influence recommendations from Delaney or other Pitt police officials would have, saying instead, “The only thing I can say about these prosecutions is that we are reviewing each case individually. I can’t go into hypotheticals because every case has its merit. Even though the arrests are similar, the facts are different.”

Delaney said he’s been working with Dan Fitzsimmons, an official in the district attorney’s office, and it’s possible that some students will be able to do community service in exchange for having their charges withdrawn completely.

Manko declined to comment on that as well.

Students may avoid judicial board

In a turnaround from its original stance, Pitt administrators don’t plan to send students to the school’s Judicial Board.

Delaney said he’s been meeting with students arrested for failure to disperse and disorderly conduct for about two weeks, and he doesn’t plan to send any of them to the University’s Judicial Board.

Pitt spokeswoman Linda Schmitmeyer said no other University administrators will send them, either.

But there is one loophole.

Shawn Ahearn, a spokesman for the Division of Student Affairs, said anyone can refer a student to the Judicial Board, so if another student or faculty member did so, then a student could still face review.

Student Conduct Officer Deborah Walker meets with all students who are referred to the board. She tells them what they’ve been charged with and informs them of their recommended punishments.

Students have three options, Ahearn said.

Students who think they’re innocent can request a hearing before a three-person panel of faculty, staff or students, who will decide whether they’ve violated the Student Code of Conduct and determine their punishment, if necessary.

If the panel agrees students have violated the code, students can either accept the suggested punishment and end the process or request a hearing to discuss other possible punishments.