Penn and Francis are cleared by COD

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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   Pair were Accused of 
   
   Assaulting Officers 
   
   during March 2 Protest 
   
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   [dl_] 
   
   
   
   (By Linda D'Angelo 
   
   and Dave Watt) 
   
   
   
   [fs4p] 
   
   The Committee on Discipline has found Ronald W. Francis G and Steven
   D. Penn G "innocent on all counts" of assault and assault and battery
   on a police officer after 11 hours of hearings last Tuesday and
   Wednesday, Penn said after a telephone conversation with Assistant
   Dean for Student Affairs Arnold R. Henderson Jr. 
   
   Penn and Francis believe that the COD decision supports their claims
   that the case was not grounded in factual evidence and that the Campus
   Police, who brought the charges before the committee, did so to harass
   Penn and Francis for their political activities on campus,
   specifically their active role in organizing divestment protests as
   members of the Coalition Against Apartheid. 
   
   
   
   The COD has yet to notify Penn and Francis of the decision in writing
   and will not do so for about two weeks, according to COD chair Sheila
   A. Widnall '60. While she stated that "at some time we will be able to
   communicate with the community," Widnall refused to comment
   specifically on the Penn and Francis case. 
   
   Before evidence against them was presented, Penn and Francis tried to
   persuade the COD to allow them to videotape the proceedings, waiving
   their right to privacy and arguing that the MIT community had a right
   to view the proceedings. The committee denied permission to tape the
   proceedings. 
   
   Widnall later commented that the COD's rules do not provide for
   taping, and that she was not sure if the COD was even legally allowed
   to permit open hearings, citing an interest in protecting students'
   rights. In accord with their usual procedure, the COD did make an
   audio tape of the proceedings. 
   
   The charges against Penn and Francis stemmed from CP statements on a
   March 2 demonstration organized by the coalition. During the protest,
   demonstrators called for South African divestment in front of the home
   of President Paul E. Gray '54 and in the lobby of Building E52 during
   an MIT Corporation meeting and luncheon. 
   
   The police had charged Penn and Francis with assault, claiming they
   "led a rush of demonstrators into [the] elevator at E52," and that
   this rush "caused an injury to Officer Rosie Sanders." After three
   months, Sanders has still not returned to work. 
   
   Francis was also charged with assault and battery on a police officer
   for allegedly kicking Officer Robert J. Molino while demonstrators
   were trying to enter the sixth floor from the stairwell of E52. 
   
   Campus Police Chief Anne P. Glavin was disappointed by the COD
   decision. "I think it is unfortunate that that was the decision," she
   commented. 
   
   Penn charged that the COD lacked established procedures. There is "no
   documentation on either how the COD proceeds or formal categories of
   its rulings," he said. Penn argued that the lack of procedures "allows
   for a lot of arbitrariness on the part of the chair, [who is] given
   discretion to do whatever is seen as reasonable." 
   
   
   
   COD keeps hearing closed 
   
   
   
   Penn and Francis' attempt to get the hearings opened to the MIT
   community took up the first three hours of the hearing on Thursday,
   according to Francis. Penn said that he and Francis waived their
   rights to privacy, arguing that the MIT community should have been
   able to view the proceedings, and brought in a videocamera and
   witnesses who would have viewed the proceedings. According to Penn,
   the COD refused, saying that committee members, too, had a right to
   privacy. 
   
   The students then argued that the community had invested the COD with
   power, and with that power should come a degree of scrutiny, but that
   also failed to win the COD over, Penn said. Widnall said later that
   the COD rules do not provide for videotaping the proceedings. 
   
   Finally, said Penn, "the committee threatened to move the trial to
   another room without us if we did not" give in. At that time the
   witnesses left and Penn and Francis agreed there would be no
   videocamera. 
   
   
   
   Penn, Francis not in 
   
   elevator, CPs say 
   
   
   
   According to Penn, the Campus Police's own witnesses admitted that the
   two students were not in the elevator when the injury to Sanders
   occurred. While Penn was accused of assault for leading the rush into
   the elevator, Detective Eugene H. Salois "testified that he was with
   me in the back of the lobby when the rush occurred," Penn said.
   Officer Cheryl Vossmer also testified that Penn was not in the
   elevator, according to Penn. 
   
   "Since Vossmer was in the elevator," Penn argued, the CPs "should have
   asked her if we were there." The fact that they did not, Penn added,
   shows that "they couldn't even prove [the charges] themselves, with
   their own witnesses, and they knew it." 
   
   Although Glavin refused to comment on the proceedings in the COD
   hearing because she was not present at the hearing, a source within
   the Campus Police Department confirmed that CPs did indeed testify
   that Penn was not in the elevator. 
   
   
   
   COD standards questioned 
   
   
   
   Penn charged that the COD lacks firm rules for introducing evidence,
   and claimed that Widnall refused to let him introduce some photographs
   unless he gave her the whole roll of film. 
   
   Widnall would not confirm or deny these claims by Penn, but said that
   the COD "will take any evidence that a student wishes to bring." 
   
   "I might say if you present this the committee might say can we have
   the following things. Everything is admissible," Widnall continued. 
   
   The COD "has no policy and they also have no precedents," Penn
   concluded. 
   
   
   
   Reaction to decision 
   
   
   
   Penn believed that while Glavin "may deny it . . . she knew that I was
   nowhere near [the elevator] and that she brought these cases forward
   to harass me for my political activity." 
   
   Penn was not surprised that he and Francis were found innocent of the
   charges against them. "They had about as much chance of voting against
   me as they did changing the laws of physics, and they should have
   known that before they brought this case to trial," he said in a
   recent interview. 
   
   "I think that Glavin is either through incompetence or through her
   selective use of evidence committing harassment, and that Widnall
   should have demanded much higher standards of evidence and should not
   have tolerated the level of unsubstantiated claims that the CPs were
   making," Penn said. 
   
   Penn repeated his charge that the COD case was politically motivated.
   While Glavin "may deny it," he said, "she knew that I was nowhere near
   [the elevator] and that she brought these cases forward to harass me
   for my political activity." 
   
   Glavin denied political motives, saying that she did "feel it was a
   legitimate case of assault on the officers," and stated that assault
   was "the sole issue." 
   
   
   
    
     _________________________________________________________________ 
   
   
   
   Copyright 1990 by The Tech. All rights reserved.
   This story was originally published on Monday (Commencement), June 4,
   1990. 
   Volume 110, Number 28
   The story began on page 1 and jumped to page 20. 
   
   This article may be freely distributed electronically, provided it is
   distributed in its entirety and includes this notice, but may not be
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