Judge rules two Dartmouth students in tent protest were trespassing

Dartmouth College student Kevin Engel, second from right, is joined in pro-Palestinian chants by Karen Bixler, of Bethel, left, fellow student Sean Wallace, second from left, and his co-defendant Roan Wade, right, outside Lebanon (N.H.) District Court on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. About 20 people gathered outside the court with Engel and Wade after the conclusion of arguments in their trial to re-affirm their support for the Palestinian people. (Valley News - James M. Patterson)

Dartmouth College student Kevin Engel, second from right, is joined in pro-Palestinian chants by Karen Bixler, of Bethel, left, fellow student Sean Wallace, second from left, and his co-defendant Roan Wade, right, outside Lebanon (N.H.) District Court on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. About 20 people gathered outside the court with Engel and Wade after the conclusion of arguments in their trial to re-affirm their support for the Palestinian people. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) James M. Patterson

By CLARE SHANAHAN

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 01-16-2025 6:01 PM

Modified: 01-17-2025 5:43 PM


LEBANON — Two Dartmouth College students arrested for protesting outside an administration building in October 2023 were guilty of criminal trespass, a state judge has ruled.

Lebanon Circuit Court Judge Michael Mace released the order in a brief two-page decision on Tuesday, finding that Roan Wade and Kevin Engel violated the contract they had agreed to in the form of the college’s Student Handbook when they refused to leave a tent they erected in front of Parkhurst Hall.

While the students were protesting in connection with Israel-Hamas conflict, Mace made no mention of the students’ reasons for trespassing in his order. During the proceedings, Mace repeatedly stated that Wade and Engel’s reason for protesting was irrelevant.

“The material facts are not in dispute,” the judge wrote.

Mariana Pastore, prosecutor for the Hanover Police Department, declined to comment on the ruling.

Defense Attorney Kira Kelley had argued in court filings and at trial that the students’ motivation for protesting led to their arrest as a result of prejudice against the pro-Palestinian faction on campus and because of pressure on the college administration from pro-Israeli donors.

The decision comes as Israel and Hamas are in the final stages of reaching a ceasefire agreement in the 15-month conflict that was set to begin this weekend. The ceasefire rather than the court’s decision is “the most important news this week,” Kelley said in an email Thursday.

“I commend my clients’ and others’ commitment to a principled stance against a vicious genocide and those who participate in callous violence to turn a profit. Regardless of the verdict, what’s most important for us all is to be on the right side of history,” Kelley wrote.

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(Kelley, who grew up in Hartland and graduated from Hanover High School, is an attorney with the Climate Defense Project, a Minnesota-based nonprofit. She represented the students pro bono.)

Like Kelley, Wade said their “main concern” remains on the Mideast conflict, rather than the judge’s decision.

“I think it sets a scary precedent for the future of campus organizing and student movements not just here but across the country,” Wade said of the ruling in a Thursday interview.

While Dartmouth College was not technically a party in the case, administrators contacted police to initiate the arrests and President Sian Leah Beilock was subpoenaed to testify at the trial.

“As always, we continue to offer the students our support. It’s not our role to comment on the outcome of a judicial process to which we are not a party,” college spokesperson Jana Barnello said via email Thursday.

Wade and Engel will be sentenced Feb. 11 at 3:30 p.m. in Lebanon District Court. The misdemeanor carries a possible fine of up to $1,200, but no possibility of jail time. The students will have a criminal record.

The saga began in October 2023 in the weeks after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. There was a series of demonstrations on campus, beginning with an Oct. 19 vigil for lives lost in the Israel-Hamas war.

As part of the protests, Engel and Wade sat inside a camping tent in front of Parkhurst on the night of Oct. 27 and refused multiple requests from college officials to exit the tent and take it down. After several hours of negotiations, they were arrested in the early morning hours of the following day.

Over two days of trial — one in February and one in October — Pastore argued that the students’ motivations were irrelevant in a trespassing case and that their sympathies for the Palestinian cause had not made them targets for arrest.

The judge ultimately agreed.

The students “refused to honor the terms of their contract” by not leaving the tent after Keiselim Montás, Dartmouth’s director of Safety and Security, asked them to multiple times “in a decidedly humble and courteous discussion” and warned them that he would call police if they continued to refuse, Mace wrote in his decision.

The judge found that the students broke the law and the evidence proves that they knew they were trespassing without a permit, he said.

Montás had the authority to tell them to leave, he communicated the instructions to them and the students intentionally defied the order.

While Wade and Engel were the first students arrested in pro-Palestinian protests at Dartmouth, they were joined by 89 others arrested in a large May 1 protest on the Dartmouth Green that drew a massive statewide police response.

Of the 89 arrestees that night, only two are set to go to trial; Upper Valley residents Christian Harris and Julianne Borger are being represented by Kelley in proceedings that are scheduled to start on Feb. 11. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Clare Shanahan can be reached at c shanahan@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.