King County Prosecutors Charge 33 People With Trespassing For UW IEB Occupation

SEATTLE— The King County Prosecutor’s Office has charged 33 people with prison trespass associated to the occupation of the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building on the University of Washington, however stopped wanting accusing anybody of vandalism and the destruction inside.

The fees had been filed on Tuesday, greater than 300 days after the incident in May 2025.

UW had accused the group that known as itself “Super UW” of breaking into the IEB, spray-painting the within, and damaging new tools. The occupation lasted a number of hours earlier than officers bodily eliminated 33 people.

Charging paperwork say the next people had been arrested within the constructing and face gross misdemeanor fees:

Taylor Hart; Max Rulff; Zachary Wallaced-Wells; Jade Wu; Jessica Schutz; Luisa Ortega Subdiaz; Ginger Newberry; Kimaya Mahajan; Gina Liu; Lea Keating; Akira Junyaprusert; Anna Hattle; Julia Fraczek; Cade Jackson; Jonas Piper Ty Park; Lucy Zern; Tasbeet Iman; Ricardo Colon-Galvez; Roberta Collison; Ella Tunduwani; Zainab Chattha; Riley Centerwall; Catherine Brown; Brett Anton; Claire Berger; Yasmin Ahmed; Yafate Yared; Geneveve Konijisky; Finn Brown; Bailey Keen; Lucas Nichols-Mcauslan; Sam Sueoka

It was not instantly clear what number of had been or are lively University of Washington college students.

In an interview with the case’s prosecutors, they defined the charging determination and the way they declined to pursue prison fees.

“We believe we can prove that all these defendants either entered or knowingly remained in the building unlawfully,” stated James Daniels, the Chief of the KCPAO’s District Court Unit. “We have body cam footage from a lot of the officers there. We have officers that observe these individuals in the building. They were given opportunities to leave the building and did not do so.”

When requested concerning the property damageSusan Harrison, who chairs the KCPAO’s Economic Crimes Unit, stated, “We simply did not have the evidence to prove as to each individual defendant that they either entered or remained unlawfully with that intent to commit a crime against a person or property therein, or that they caused the physical damage themselves.”

“I think that that’s frustrating for the entire community to have something damaged like that, have a significant dollar amount and not be able to file charges and hold somebody accountable for that. If we had the evidence to establish that, we absolutely would have filed it. But at the end of the day, if you don’t have the evidence, you can’t make that filing decision,” stated Dan Clark, the Chief Deputy of the Criminal Division.

Prosecutors famous the dearth of safety cameras contained in the IEB as a key subject.

In an e mail obtained by KOMO News by means of a public data request, Lt. Anthony Stewart of the UW Police Department wrote to prosecutor and UW officers about his idea:

“My working hypothesis is that two distinct groups were involved. The first group carried out the property destruction and subsequently exited the building. The second group — the occupiers — appeared to have been selected based on their affiliation with the school (ie, students or staff).

I believe the overarching strategy was to have the second group occupy the building, leveraging their institutional ties to reduce the likelihood of an aggressive police response and to prompt prolonged negotiations with the administration.

No hammers, pry bars, or similar tools were recovered. However, I submitted a large rock for fingerprint analysis, which was discovered during a related vandalism investigation a few days after the IEB incident. Unfortunately, no latent prints were found. In fact, I recall that the occupiers I encountered were wearing gloves.

Only a small number of markers were found in the backpacks, and their colors did not match the graffiti observed on the walls and mural.”

The prosecutors were asked if the events could be labeled as a hate crime, based on the idea that the incident involved pro-Palestinian protesters calling on UW to end ties with Boeing because of its association with Israel. Critics of the university have suggested the habits was antisemitic.

“I understand that concern, I absolutely do, and we certainly don’t want to make any of our community members feel unsafe or hurt in that regard,” Clark said. “But no charges were submitted to us for hate crime, because I don’t think any exist.”

“There’s politically protected speech, and then there’s hate crime, and this did not cross over onto that line of hate crime,” he added.

Harrison was asked about a potential conspiracy charge, given the number of people who organized to enter the building that day.

“We must provide that agreement before the fact and that sort of acting in concert with one another to achieve that stated goal,” she stated. “And sadly, it is my understanding that we merely do not have the proof to ascertain that right now.”

Clark also acknowledged that there could be frustration from Jewish groups about the lack of more serious felony charges.

UW has not yet responded to a request for comment on the status of the charged students. They were allowed back on campus earlier this year.

“I can’t say how these cases are going to be resolved, but I can say that we have looked at all of the evidence that was presented to us, and we made the best filing decision that we had available based on the facts and the evidence in front of us. Ultimately, every person will have their own definition of what is justice,” Clark stated. “But these are the fees that we are able to file.”

Harrison additionally stated she believes there was a misperception that the police and prosecutors weren’t actively investigating the case, given the size of time that has passed by.

“The large amount of evidence that we had to review that was submitted to us by the University of Washington Police Department, and that it matters to get it right,” she stated.

“The criminal charges were submitted in June, and then in January, UW, PD, submitted misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass in the first degree,” Daniels said. “Our team reviewed those charges and those referrals immediately, and we’re filing charges five or six weeks later, so we definitely try to get those charges filed as soon as possible.”

“I also believe that there’s a misperception out there that the speed at which we file charges suggests how important that case is to us, when in actuality, the case may be extremely complicated based on the amount of evidence submitted to us, the number of body cams we have to review, the other avenues to pursue, in terms of evidential gathering,” Clark stated.

UW spokesperson Victor Balta says 23 college students had been charged by prosecutors and “The students have served three quarters of suspension as a result of their involvement in this incident. Misdemeanor proceedings stemming from it would not further impact their academic progress at the UW.”

We are happy to see prison fees filed with the court docket associated to the occupation of the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building. This is a crucial step in making certain accountability for those that perpetrated this occupation, along with the suspensions that the scholars arrested within the constructing acquired by means of the coed conduct course of,” Balta also wrote. “We worth free speech and expression but in addition should proceed to be a campus group the place harmful, illegal actions should not tolerated.

We respect the exhausting work by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, UW Police and regulation enforcement companions who investigated a posh case involving numerous people.

The UW Jewish Alumni posted a response to the charging determination on