Eleven people, including six current and former students, have agreed to pay $400,000 in restitution in order to avoid a trial on vandalism charges related to graffiti at Case Western Reserve University protesting the war in Gaza and the university's investments in Israel bonds.
The defendants, accused of damaging the campus with red paint and other vandalism in November 2024, have all entered into a pre-trial diversion program with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, court records show and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office confirmed Wednesday.
That includes Benjamin Mullin-Vanneste, who spoke out during a press conference Saturday. He said he is one of three seniors at the university who still face expulsion despite paying restitution.
"We have for months been not only fighting the legal battle, but attempting to work with the university to negotiate in good faith towards restorative solutions and the allowance to complete our degrees," Mullin-Vanneste said. "We are nearly finished paying for damages case attributed to the vandalism."
A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office said the majority of the $400,000 restitution was paid up front. Mullin-Vanneste said students worked multiple jobs, took on overtime and even went into thousands of dollars of debt to pay the restitution.
"I was offered my diploma by the university in exchange for full cooperation, meaning that if I reported to them the identity of individuals they think were involved, then I would receive my diploma from Case Western Reserve University," Mullin-Vanneste said. "When I rejected this, they shut down negotiations completely. This is not the university acting in good faith by showing they are both able and willing to give us our diplomas, but only under these cruel conditions."
Sarah Selan, one of the activists charged with vandalism, alleged the university and its police department retaliated against them for their pro-Palestinian activism and speech.
"We were arrested, sent to one of the worst jails (Cuyahoga County Jail) in the country," she said. "Some of us were denied necessary medications. We were locked up for up to five days with one individual held over a holiday weekend. Upon our release, we were subject to death threats and doxing from social media."
In a statement Wednesday, the university declined to comment on what it called active litigation.
The initial indictment from the prosecutor's office alleges the eleven were responsible for throwing red paint and placing red handprints across campus property, including at least one statue and on windows in November 2024. Additional photos on social media from the time show flyers posted across campus calling for CWRU President Eric Kaler to step down and for the university to divest from Israel bonds.
During Saturday's press conference, Mullin-Vanneste and the other students said they did not want the focus to stray from why they are speaking out.
"Every single institution of higher education in Gaza has been destroyed," he said. "And our own university is complicit in that crime. We are in the struggle for Palestinians' right to self-determination, their right to life, and right to education."
The arrests of the 11 came after a wave of pro-Palestinian protests on campus in spring 2024, where students created an encampment and marched across the college for two weeks. Two dozen students were detained by police but not arrested as part of those demonstrations.
