Legal proceedings continued Wednesday at the Judge Stephan P. Mickle, Sr. Criminal Courthouse for two of the nine pro-Palestine protesters who were arrested on the University of Florida campus in April.
Each formally entered a plea of not guilty.
Augustino Matthias Pulliam, a second-year music major at UF, was charged with failing to obey police and resisting officers without violence.
Tess Jaden Segal, a second-year sustainability major, was charged with failing to obey police as well as wearing a mask or hood on public property.
Segal described what she thinks is happening with the prosecutions.
“Based on our conversations with the public defenders, it seems like the state is interested in not taking this to trial maybe because it would be high profile," she said, "but they're also uninterested in dropping the cases.”
Segal confirmed that she and her fellow classmates have been suspended from UF until 2027 due to their arrests.
However, she added she's trying to keep the global situation in mind.
“Even as difficult as it has been with our educational statuses changing, it's not lost on us that every university in Gaza has been bombed to rubble," she said. "So we are definitely keeping things in perspective.”
Pulliam and Segal are scheduled to appear in court for their pre-trial hearing on Aug. 6.
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