Sparks flew during a fiery court hearing Thursday where six of the 13 protesters arrested after a pro-Palestinian rally in Boston turned violent earlier this week appeared for arraignment.
All six suspects — two of them current students at Emerson College — had not guilty pleas entered on their behalf and were held on bail ranging from $5,000-$10,000, along with an order that they stay out of the Boston Common and the Public Garden. They are also immediately facing new charges, including inciting a riot.
At several points, Judge Paul Treseler had to admonish the group of at least two dozen people gathered in the courtroom to series the proceedings for crowding the lawyers. Bailiffs even asked some people to step outside.
“The courtroom’s beyond capacity at this point,” Treseler said. “If we had someone from the fire department here, they would probably shut us down. If you’re here, you have to be silent. This is a court of law. Phones off. Silence.”
Haley McIntyre, 24, of Dorchester, a senior at Emerson College, the first of the suspects arraigned, was identified as the person who might have started Tuesday’s violence when they kicked a Boston police cruiser with its lights activated as it attempted to respond to an unrelated incident.
Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Olivia Izzi asked for $5,000 bail, but Treseler went even higher, setting bail at $7,500, noting that McIntyre had just been before the court about a year earlier on a disturbing the peace charge.
Treseler took particular exception to defense attorney Kylah Clay’s argument that MacIntyre shouldn’t be banned from Boston Common because they need to attend classes at Emerson. He said he has no problem with them attending classes, but said they can walk around the Common.
“I understand your objection to that,” he said. “But [MacIntyre] is not going to be present at future protests on the Common. That’s not going to happen on my series.”
The others arraigned Thursday included:
- Atalanta Carrig-Braun, 20, a junior at Emerson, who was also ordered held on $7,500 bail.
- Jacob Pettigrew, 22, of Malden, a gradute of Tufts University, who was held on $5,000 bail.
- Styx Hatch, 19, of Boston, who was held on $10,000 bail, after Izzi described how they screamed vulgarities at officers, physically intervened with an arrest and “kicked and violently thrashed” as officers attempted to arrest them.
- Osama Khatib, 26, of Watertown, who works for a startup company and was also held on $10,000 bail. Izzi said he was seen punching several police officers.
- Madeline Weikel, 27, of Watertown, who is a farmer in Concord and was held on $5,000 bail. Izzi said she was captured on police bodycam video kicking officer sand screaming for them to “quit their job.” One officer suffered a back injury while helping to carry her from the street.
In each of the six cases, Clay requested lower, $500 bail, arguing that her clients were unable to afford the higher amounts. All six of them are due back in court for pretrial hearings on Oct. 31.
The first round of defendants in the case were arraigned on Wednesday.
Four police officers were injured after a protest on the Boston Common moved onto city streets.
Dozens of people were seen peacefully chanting and waving Palestinian flags by the “Embrace” statue before chaos erupted when demonstrators moved from the Boston Common to Tremont Street during the “Flood Downtown for Palestine” rally that was held on Tuesday — the second anniversary of Hamas’ deadly surprise attack on Israel, sparking a conflict in Gaza that is still continuing.
Police said several demonstrators set off devices that released red smoke in the air, as they allegedly blocked traffic, kicked a marked police cruiser, and assaulted officers.
Four officers were hurt, with two landing in the hospital with broken bones, police said. All of them are expected to be OK.
The protest was one of many around the world that coincided with the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 251 people, and Israel responded with a massive military campaign that Gaza health officials say has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.
The Boston protest was organized by area Students for Justice in Palestine groups, according to social media posts. The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson College’s student newspaper, reported that organizers called on protesters to urge their universities to divest from companies with economic ties to Israel.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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