During their pretrial Wednesday, the students arrested on Sept. 10 at Student Senate had their charges reduced from a fourth degree misdemeanor to a minor misdemeanor
The students arrested during a Student Senate meeting will have their day in trial, but it might not be for quite some time.
The four students who were arrested at the Sept. 10 Ohio University Student Senate meeting — Jonah Yulish, Maxwell Peltz, Rebecca Sebo and Gabriel Sirkin — appeared in Athens County Municipal Court on Wednesday for their pretrial hearing. Judge William Grim presided over the case.
After being given a month between court appearances and being offered a deal of a $100 fine and a minor misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, all of the defendants’ pleas remain “not guilty.”
An OU representative, Jim Miller, was also present.
Yulish, Peltz, Sebo and Sirkin were arrested by OUPD after speaking out against Megan Marzec’s “blood bucket” challenge. The students were charged with disturbing a lawful meeting, a fourth-degree misdemeanor charge that carries a maximum of 30 days in jail as well as a $250 fine.
Sebo is the sister of Post assistant design editor David Sebo.
“The reason we made that offer was because … there have been similar cases at OU where people have been arrested at Board of Trustees and at Student Senate meetings, and that’s the state’s standard offer on these types of cases,” said City Prosecutor Tracy Meek, adding that the offer was open to each defendant, not the group as a whole.
“That’s the state’s only interest in this case, is a conviction of a minor misdemeanor of disorderly conduct,” Meek said.
All four defendants agreed to the revised charges but are still going to a bench trial.
Grim said that he “anticipates a two-day trial,” considering the charges apply to four defendants.
The trial will take place Feb. 17 at 8:30 a.m.
There was some dispute over documents that Larry Zuckerman, Peltz’s lawyer, had subpoenaed before pretrial.
Miller maintained that some of the documents requested by Zuckerman were protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and could not be disclosed, though Zuckerman argued that because he was “not asking about financial aid information or the students’ grades” that documents requested should be available.
“Any document maintained by the university that directly references a student’s name is protected by FERPA,” Miller said.
Zuckerman had subpoenaed Marzec for her correspondence between herself, OU officials, herself and OUPD, which she sent prior to the pretrial. Marzec also was in the audience during the hearing. Along with Marzec’s statements, Zuckerman wanted correspondence from OUPD and OU officials.
FERPA aims to protect students’ educational records, but police records are generally understood to be open to state open records laws. It was not immediately clear if the correspondences Zuckerman is seeking are FERPA-protected.
“The constitution trumps FERPA,” Zuckerman said, adding that he thought university officials should have done more to keep the meeting in order.
Grim agreed to allow Zuckerman and other attorneys to subpoena communications about Student Senate from OUPD and university officials between Sept. 2 to 11.
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