Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced felony charges today (April 10) against 12 pro-Palestinian protesters who allegedly broke into the Stanford president’s offices and spray painted the building.
The protesters have been in limbo since they were arrested for felony burglary on June 5, 2024, the last day of classes for Stanford’s spring quarter.
They are set to be arraigned later this month, Rosen announced.
“Dissent is American. Vandalism is criminal,” Rosen said in a statement announcing the charges. “There is a bright line between making a point and committing a crime. These defendants crossed the line into criminality when they broke into these offices, barricaded themselves inside and started a calcuated plan of destruction.”
The protest started around 5:30 a.m. Students barricaded themselves inside the building and stayed there for three hours, the university said.
Anti-Israel messages were spray painted on the inside and outside of the building, photos show.
Police broke into the office at about 7:15 a.m. and arrested the protesters.
Students who participated in the protest were immediately suspended, and any seniors weren’t allowed to graduate, the university said at the time.
Stanford also took down a student encampment of Palestinian supporters.
One police officer was “lightly injured” when he was shoved by protesters, the university said.
The case has received extra attention because one of the students who was arrested — Dylan Gohill, 20, of Santa Monica — said he was there to cover the event as a reporter for the Stanford Daily.
Rosen announced he wouldn’t be charging Gohill on March 6. His office has been tight-lipped about the rest of the students who were arrested.
Those charged are: Eliana Lindsay Fuchs, 24, of San Mateo; Isabella Terrazas, 22, of Houston; Hunter Armstrong Taylor-Black, 24, of Chestnut Hill, Pa.; Taylor Oh McCann, 32, of Oakland; Gretchen Rose Guimarin, 22, of Rancho Cordova; John Thomas Richardson, 19, of Menlo Park; Kaiden Wang, 22, of Elk Grove; German Rafael Gonzalez, 20, of Stanford; Cameron Michael Pennington, 22, of Stanford; Zoe Georgia Edelman, 23, of Washington, D.C.; Maya Nell Murungi Burke, 28, of Frankfort, Ky.; and Amy Jing Zhu, 20, of Thousand Oaks.
Hi! It was actually a female public safety officer who was shoved by the protesters.
Seems like an appropriate legal consequence.
Not sure what this means for the suspended students and those not allowed to graduate. Could be a big financial and career hit.
They were charged with felonies so Rosen could give them plea bargains where they are convicted of misdemeanors. They’ll have to do community service, like pick up trash in a park, but no jail time. Rosen can act like he’s tough on crime yet make life easy for the children of the wealthy and privileged.
It took Rosen 11 months to decide on charges because he needed to clear it with George Soros first.
why would George Soros be involved with this?
George Soros is Rosen’s boss
If Dylan Gohill was only with this group as a “journalist” why was he wearing a mask?
Gohill wasn’t a journalist. A journalist doesn’t participate in a protest. They stand on the side and observe what is happening. He crossed the line from reporter to activist. The fact that he played the journalist card is outrageous and others in the news media should be condemning his actions.
How disgusting! This is just a slap on the wrist. As long as these young adults, keep getting away with this destructive despicable, violent behavior we will continue to see this movie over and over again. When will we start electing public officials that have the integrity and guts to stand up and hold people accountable?
You are absolutely right! I’m disgusted, too!
It’s appalling that they won’t be serving any jail time for their arrogant, ignorant and egregious break-in and vandalism of the President’s Office of Stanford University. They should be immediately expelled from Stanford, where they clearly don’t belong, and then serve time in prison, where they clearly DO belong.
They are Soros’ shock troops. Give them a mere slap on the wrist and you’re asking for big trouble.
DA Jeff Rosen needs to be replaced with a DA who stands for law and order.
I also want to thank The Post for posting the faces of this criminals. Take a good look. These are the faces of HATE antisemitism ,and stupidity. I pray that at least one of them finds a better path in their life.
The faces of the DEI movement.
A proud moment for Stanford. The radical faculty indoctrinated these kids, then they did what they were taught. The DA didn’t want to charge them, cause, after all they’re not conservatives or Trumpers. But the pressure got too great. I don’t expect any of them to spend a minute in jail. Their parents will pay their fines and legal fees. The charges will be reduced by any of our local judges and they’ll do community service. Actually, they’ve already done community service, so the sentence won’t mean anything.
Hi! Hope you’re doing great!! Not all of them are rich, so maybe stop judging. They however passionate about the movement and are disgusted from looking at their screen every day to find mutilated children and hospitals being destroyed, knowing full well that their school is funding this ethnic cleansing. Maybe get out of the portola valley rich bubble and understand that these are also humans at the end of the day and deserve empathy as wel.
If they gave a rat’s ass about Palestinians, they would be pressuring Hamas to free the hostages, lay down their weapons and give up on their aspirations to destroy Israel. At minimum, they would be outraged at how Hamas is holding two and a half million Gazans hostages, violating every rule of war to maximize civilian deaths on their side and how not a single Arab country will take in Gazan refugees so Israel could eliminate the terror threat without harming civilians.
They are indoctrinated fools, as are you.
Follow a Palestinian from Gaza, Ahmoud Fouad. See what he has to say about this ridiculous movement…replete with terrorist cosplayers and useful idiots.
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You’re quite right, Debbie!
Thank you for saving me the trouble of saying the same thing.
It’s dangerous when people who are ignorant of history and of the truth–which you often have to search for beyond the mainstream media–become radicalized–especially when they are clearly being organized. We saw this in the well-organized and well-funded pro-Palestinian/pro-Hamas “encampments” at many big name universities last year.
At least there was fallout after the Congressional hearings, and some presidents of prestigious universities who had done nothing to stop the mayhem or to protect the Jewish students who were being threatened, lost their jobs.
Well said, Robert. I’m sure Building Ten and the university did everything they could to keep this under wraps. No doubt Mommy and Daddy will cover the costs, and they’ll walk away without learning a single lesson.
Why would $750,000 in damages matter- they’re just kids expressing themselves? At what age do morals and ethics and valuing property get caught? If it is ok to express yourself like this when you don’t like something going on in the world in your 20’s just imagine how theor kids will be.
There are troubling events all over the world happening, it doesn’t mean you break into buildings and deface property in the United States. What exactly did doing this to Stanford change anything in other countries?
People are lacking respect and values in their own county, in their own school or even with visas as visitor. Sometimes consequences need to be taught. Picking up trash may not do a thing for the above mentioned vandals. Disappointed this even happened or was coordinated to occur.
This kind of behavior has been encouraged and tolerated on campus for a long time. Honestly, a lot of these kids seem mentally unwell—maybe it’s the lack of vitamin D and an all-vegan diet.
Thank you to these brave students for actually living their values and standing up to power at great personal risk. If you are more disturbed by students briefly occupying an admin building in protest than you are by the indiscriminate bombing of schools, hospitals, and families, you are deeply misguided and will be remembered as doing nothing, or actively supporting, horrific ongoing genocide. Thank you again to these students!
Toddlers have tantrums and destroy things that aren’t theirs. Adults learn so they can voice educated opinions, and discuss them with reasoned arguments. The encampments were not impressive.I went to a few,I spoke with several students. The students didn’t know what they were talking about. Who cleaned up? Not these entitled brats. Working class janitors. Give me a break, Ellis. These kids don’t clean their own toilets.
What a smug and arrogant reply. These very brave young people were protesting a *genocide*. The mass slaughter of an entire population. Mass starvation. The blocking of humanitarian aid into areas that have been reduced to demolition sites. Have you no empathy? Have you not an ounce of humanity? Do you not care that our government, your tax dollars, are paying for the bombs and planes and helicopters and bullets that are aimed at children’s heads, at pregnant women’s heads, at doctors heads? It is quite sickening to read your comment.
Well, not quite an “entire population” … There are enough Hamas members left to carry on a full-scale war with Israel … and there’s enough Hamas members to continue to hold 59 hostages. So, no, there was no genocide as the dictionary defines it. And don’t forget, Hamas started this war with the massacre of 1,200 innocent Jews. What is Israel supposed to do? Retreat and give Hamas a pat on the back?
If Hamas members want to survive, they should return to the ceasefire. It’s entirely up to them.
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These future Starbucks employees—petulant man-children and woman-children causing damage and acting out violently—shouldn’t be applauded. Maybe if a group of protestors stormed into your home, spray-painted your walls, and vandalized what’s important to you, you’d finally wake up to reality. Then again, maybe not—because your post is a perfect example of willful and blissful ignorance
I can’t believe these comments. These students were very brave to risk what they did in order to speak out against an ongoing genocide, a genocide which has renewed in its immense brutality today. Children, women and men are being slaughtered every day. Health care personnel targeted, journalists targeted. There is a warrant out by the ICC for the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, yet the US has ignored this fact, has instead completely supported and enabled this genocide. Mass starvation has been instituted. The ongoing daily acts of against the Palestinians are of such nightmarish brutality that they are difficult to believe. These very brave young people should be supported and protected against a vindictive state that is doing its best to stamp out voices of reason and humanity.
1. Alleged Mom says “Children, women and men are being slaughtered every day.” Yeah, Hamas locates its missiles in preschools and hospitals. Those targets are hit to prevent Hamas’ Iranian funded missiles from killing women and children, not to mention men.
2. Alleged Mom says “The ongoing daily acts of against (sic) the Palestinians are of such nightmarish brutality that they are difficult to believe.” OK, if you want those acts of brutality to end, release the 59 hostages and stop fighting.
If the Palestinians are tired of this, they should just push out Hamas.
Free the hostages and stop the fighting. Do it today.
You are truly just spewing propaganda. Israel broke the ceasefire. Israel has broken agreement after agreement, and not followed through with its obligations. It is a settler colonial state, its existence dependent on stealing land and subjugating the rightful inhabitants of said land in order to do so. The ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide are being committed with a mind-boggling viciousness, and (critically) dependent on US funding, munitions, and diplomatic cover.
If Hamas wants peace, why not release the 59 hostages? Answer the question. Don’t change the subject!!
@PaloAltomom You called these students “brave”—LOL, what do you really know about bravery? Maybe it’s time to go back to your alternate reality, the one that’s been affecting Palo Alto for far too long. You’re the type of person who proudly displays flags like BLM, Ukraine, and LGBT, and probably has a sign saying “Hate doesn’t have a place here.” Yet, you’d be the first to call Palo Alto PD if you saw a Black person—whether a kid or an adult—walking through your neighborhood. You’re part of the problem, and your actions only contribute to the ongoing racism by proxy that’s been a longstanding issue in Palo Alto (I can speak from experience, having grown up there). Maybe it’s time to stop living in your bubble…I can only imagine the posts that you’ve made on the nextdoor app.
When vandals, burglars and trespassers are arrested and convicted, they should be punished with prison time so they learn a lesson to not do it again. It doesn’t matter if they have a message or are posing as a journalist, if they’ve been caught, arrest them and put them on trial. If you think there should be an exception in the penal code for protesters, get the legislature to change the law.
Stanford usually does everything it can to protect its own, keep things internal, and avoid airing any dirty laundry in public—but this isn’t one of those cases, and honestly, it’s refreshing to see.
Interesting how so many of these domestic agitators tend to come from the radical left—and are often highly educated, too.
I like to call them the Hamas fanbase…
No surprise here—among the radical left-wing academic circles that raise families at Stanford, ideology often seems to be a family heirloom. Think of it as a legacy admission, but for political zeal. Let’s just say…not exactly model citizens, more like entitled and prestiged vermin.
German Rafael Gonzalez, 20, and Cameron Michael Pennington, 22—both of Stanford—are likely products of the particular ideological greenhouse that’s been flourishing on campus for some time now. While I haven’t done a deep dive on StanfordWho to confirm, I’d wager there’s a decent chance their worldviews were shaped by the more fervent corners of academic activism (and like I said, a radical left upbringing) One can only imagine the dinner table conversations growing up—perhaps not unlike those in the Bankman-Fried household, where spirited discourse appears to have been a family tradition.
Slight tangent, but I can’t help wondering—how many Teslas on the Stanford campus have been vandalized by now? And how many proudly sport the “I bought this before Elon went crazy” bumper sticker? Honestly, it might be the most quintessentially Palo Alto/Stanford thing imaginable.
Stanford and other schools are to blame for the mess going on on college campuses. If they put up with these politically motivated camp-outs, demonstrations and occupying of buildings they can pay for the damages. The faculty’s involvement in promoting politics is enabling this stuff.