District Attorney dropping 4 students’ charges, will review others with Pitt police

The district attorney’s office is dropping the charges against four Pitt students who were… The district attorney’s office is dropping the charges against four Pitt students who were arrested during G-20 demonstrations last week, and Pitt police plan to meet with others.

Pitt police Chief Tim Delaney said he’ll meet with students who were arrested for failure to disperse or disorderly conduct in Oakland last Thursday or Friday night. Delaney said he doesn’t have the power to dismiss students’ charges, but that he can recommend District Attorney Stephen Zappala drop them; Delaney said he met with Zappala today and has “been working hard to get this resolved.”

“If you think about it, I’m not doing a very popular thing in law enforcement, but what’s right is right,” Delaney said.

He will not meet with students who were arrested outside of Oakland, arrested more than once or who were charged with offenses other than failure to disperse or disorderly conduct, according to a University news release.

Delaney said he’s still cross-checking the list of people arrested last week with Pitt’s databases, so he’s not sure how many students were arrested. So far, he said, it looks like about a quarter of the 188 people who were arrested during G-20 demonstrations were Pitt students.

So far, at least six of those students had extenuating circumstances, Delaney said. He mentioned one student who had a hearing impairment; Delaney asked the student to get a note from their doctor. He said he knew of at least one student who had swiped out of Benedum Hall and was on his way home.

“The good news is something is shaking here,” he said.