6 days ago
Third defendant in U of I pro-Palestine protest pleads guilty to misdemeanor
URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — A Champaign man charged in connection with last year's pro-Palestine protests on the University of Illinois campus reached a plea deal with prosecutors on Monday, becoming the third person to see their case resolved.
Court records show that George Vassilatos, 26, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a peace officer while a felony count of mob action was dismissed. Accepting the guilty plea, Judge Matthew Lee then sentenced Vassilatos to 12 months of conditional discharge and 30 hours of community service.
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Vassilatos was the first person to be arrested in connection with the events of April 26, 2024, at the Alma Mater statue on the U of I campus. Shortly before 6 a.m. that morning, a group of protestors pitched tents near the statue in protest of the university's involvement with companies and organizations profiting off of the war in Gaza, which continues to this day. University officials gave the protestors a deadline to take the tents down, saying that pitching tents went against campus policy.
When the deadline came and went with tents still up, the University of Illinois Police and Facilities and Services Departments attempted to take the tents down themselves at 8:23 a.m. Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz said Vassilatos resisted officers by linking arms with other protestors.
When he was pulled away from the group, Vassilatos went limp and dropped to his knees, causing officers to have to carry him away. He was placed under arrest at 8:26 a.m.
UIUC pro-Palestine encampment timeline in photos
The protest continued into the afternoon, at which point the number of protestors swelled into the hundreds. Another attempt by police to remove the pitched tents resulted in another struggle between officers and protestors; officers de-escalated the situation by backing away, starting a standoff with the protestors that lasted late into that night.
The encampment restarted near Foellinger Auditorium two days later, where it stayed uneventfully for weeks until the school year ended.
Vassilatos and eight other people were charged in connection to the unrest. All of the defendants were also charged with felony mob action and misdemeanor obstructing a peace officer and one — Christopher Zelle — was also charged with aggravated battery to a peace officer.
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Court records show two of them — Victor Smith and Joseph Kleckner — took plea deals similar to Vassailatos'. They pleaded guilty to obstruction and had mob action dismissed, with sentences of 12 months of conditional discharge and 100 hours of community service.
A third defendant, U of I student Yafa Issa, was tried from the bench in April. Similar to the others, she was convicted of obstruction with mob action being dismissed. Sentencing is set for July 3.
Three other defendants — Elizabeth Sotiropoulos, Christopher Zelle and Arthur Paganini — are still in the pretrial phase of their cases. The status of the other two defendants are unknown.
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