Tensions were being built at Princeton University as Palestinian demonstrators occupied a Greek revival-style white revival-style building in the heart of the campus, and police entered.
“It was a tense time as there were hundreds of protesters trying to prevent a legal arrest,” reads the police report for the day, April 29, 2024.
Princeton junior David Piegaro was filming on his phone. Piegaro says he is not one of the protesters and is opposed to many of their language and tactics. He described himself as a pro-Israel “civic journalist.” He was interested in what was considered an inadequate response at the university and wanted to testify through the records.
By nightfall he was one of more than 12 students charged with misconduct at an elite New Jersey school. He joined around 3,100 people arrested or detained on campuses in the county last spring amid a wave of student activity in the war in Gaza.
The charges of trespassing against Palestinian demonstrators arrested in Princeton that day are pending. But Piegaro, who was charged with assault, is the only person to be tried so far. A district court judge who predominates the two-day lawsuit in February is scheduled to announce the verdict on Tuesday.
The Trump administration has made a dramatic show that attempted to punish or attempt to punish university protesters who opposed Israel's military response in Gaza, where deaths exceed 50,000.
The administration has detained or threatened to deport at least nine international students or faculty members. She was taken into custody last week.
But the arrest and trial of Piegaro, born and raised in New Jersey, underscores the complexities of the issues facing university administrators and police, striving to balance questions about what constitutes statements of respect for free expression and hate.
Piegaro, 27, is older than most undergraduates. He served in the US Army for several years at Princeton before beginning his studies, where he worked as an information analyst with secret security clearance.
He is Jewish and said he is plagued by the fatal attacks on Israel by Hamas, a terrorist group that killed around 1,200 people, and the tactics of the Palestinian growth movement on campus.
However, he said he was not involved in protest or rebellion. And one of the charges brought against him – the aggravated assault – was far more serious than the trespassing quotes filed against the 13 other Princeton students charged that day.
After Piegaro's lawsuit went through the criminal justice system, the three first cases he faced, including worsening assault, have been dropped or reduced. He and his lawyer, Gerald Crobertine, convincing his innocence, said they twice refused an offer to plead guilty to a lesser innocent charge of not voluntarily damaging his record with all sorts of beliefs.
He went to trial for a low-level assault charge, equivalent to a misdemeanor, and was subjected to a potential six-month penalty and a $1,000 fine in prison.
“I really believe I am the victim,” Piegaro said in an interview. “I really don't think I've done anything.”
The run-in that led to his arrest involved Kenneth Strother Jr., head of the school's campus security department.
Piegaro was angry at the release of dozens of protesters on the quote and began recording two faculty advisors.
Struther bans Piegaro from trying to chase them, and Piegaro can be heard on the video he recorded.
“Don't touch me,” Piegaro says before the video suddenly ends. A few seconds later, he says he was lying down the stairs in front of the building.
What happened during that time was the core of the conflict.
According to Struther, whose accounts were posted in the police report, Piegaro told Struther “pushed himself away” “he grabbed Piegaro with his arm and told him he was arrested.” Strother said he lost his detention of Piegaro, who had resisted his arrest, and Piegaro said he had gone down the stairs.
Piegaro says he was the one who was assaulted.
Graduate student Sarah Kwartler, who recognised him several years ago after going on two dates with Piegalo, testified that she stopped looking at some of what unfolded.
She said she saw Piegaro “like an open pair of scissors,” losing his grip and dropping him, according to a summary of testimony submitted to the judge. Piegaro then rolled to the bottom of the stairs, Kwartler said.
In complaints of pain, Piegaro was taken to hospital where he was evaluated for a broken rib and a concussion. Police report said Strather, who did not respond to a request for comment, was not injured.
Piegaro's lawyer, Crobatin, has argued that, in addition to several other crimes, the decision to first file a client for a differently slammed attack when compared to low-level trespassing charges against protesters.
“The fact remains that the only student charged with three prosecutable crimes that day was a Jewish Army veteran,” Crobertine said, adding, “I don't know why Princeton didn't pull back to this.”
Princeton spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said the university had postponed the decisions of city prosecutors and city judges. She drew the distinction between Piegaro's attack and the trespassing accusations filed against protesters.
Regarding the trespassing charge, she said, “the university is not a party to these court cases and is not intervening — it consistently says that it supports consequences that minimize the impact of arrests on these individuals.”
She added, “The university has not commented on separate charges raised against individuals in relation to interactions with police officers.”
Two pro-Palestinian protesters who were arrested in Princeton last April declined to comment. Princeton's municipal prosecutor Christopher Cturis did not reply to phone or emails.
Piegaro said he was banned from student housing and campus for about two weeks after being arrested. He spent several days with Rabbi Eitan Webb, a Jewish pastor and director of Chabad House at Princeton University.
In an interview, Rabbi Webb recalled the “pressure regulating effect” on campus last spring.
“In that environment, when you have a host of many public safety personnel, especially the events of the day, I think the administrator is doing his best – it's not surprising that mistakes will arise,” said Rabbi Webb, who attended Piegaro's trial.
He said he believes his testimony showed that Piegaro was “innocent.”
Bre Franky, who works in Princeton's public safety department, testified that Piegaro “recharged the door” with Struther as the student “recharged the door” according to the summary of his testimony.
However, Zia Mian, one of the two faculty advisors who spoke to Struther during the conflict, testified, “This was not an attempt to attack the chief.”
Unlike many universities, Princeton cancelled its efforts last April by pro-Palestinian demonstrators to build tents on campus. At least two people have been charged after refusing to knock down the tent. The Clio Hall acquisition on the night Piegaro was arrested continued just two hours after students said they were given an exit deadline and would face an arrest.
The school was also able to avoid much of the confusion involving presidents of several other prominent universities, including those summoned to testify before Congress about the school's reaction to anti-Semitism on campus.
Morrill said Princeton's “expanding commitment to freedom of speech, including peaceful opposition, protests and demonstrations remains unshakable.” And the campus continues to bust with signs of lively academic debate.
On Tuesday afternoon, the school will hold a forum on academic freedom and “when and when and when should universities take institutional stances on social and political issues. Later this week, a conference on the history, theory and politics of “anti-Zionist ideas” will be held.
Keith A. Whittington, a longtime Princeton professor who teaches at Yale Law School this year, is one of three academics attending Tuesday's forum. Free speech scholar Professor Whittington was on Princeton's campus the day the pro-Palestinian protesters occupied Clio Hall, but did not witness Piegaro's arrest.
“It just shows how difficult it is on campus and how unstable these situations are,” Professor Whittington said.
At this point, he said facts can be difficult to analyze.
“That's why you got tried,” he said.
