Judge Lets Student Off Hook, Chides FBI Agent

A federal judge Monday threw out the felony indictment of 18-year-old Kristen Crabtree, testily ruling that the UC San Diego honors student never should have been charged in the first place with biting an FBI agent during a campus demonstration.

While he criticized Crabtree for chomping down on FBI Special Agent Marene Allison’s finger when the agent grabbed at her camera during the May 14 protest, Chief U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. said the FBI agent’s unjustifiable use of force provoked the incident.

“She had no right to lay her hands on Miss Crabtree,” Thompson said, dismissing the charge a day before the case against Crabtree was to go to trial.

Crabtree, a resident adviser at UCSD’s Third College, was taking pictures for a leftist student newspaper during a demonstration against government and military recruiting at a university job fair.

Allison testified at the pretrial hearing Monday that she believed Crabtree and another student--both wearing black and white scarves she associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization--might be part of a group trying to provoke her or create a confrontation.

Wanted No Pictures

But under questioning by Thompson and defense attorney Barton Sheela III, Allison conceded that the reason she tried to grab Crabtree’s camera as the student approached her was because the agent did not want her picture taken--even though she was in a public place and understood that Crabtree was within her rights to take it.

“Sometimes the best defense is a good offense,” Allison said.

Those few words appeared to seal the fate of the case. Thompson--who had made it clear early in the hearing that prosecutors had an uphill fight to persuade him of the viability of the charge--quickly latched onto Allison’s admission that she had taken the offensive in the confrontation with Crabtree.

Interrupting Assistant U.S. Atty. Kevin McInerney as the prosecutor sought to salvage his case, Thompson said it appeared that Allison might have assaulted Crabtree, rather than the other way around.

“She felt the offense of touching was the best defense to a situation she was perceiving to occur,” he said. “An offensive touching is an assault.”

Thompson stopped short, however, of accepting Sheela’s assertion that the case should be dismissed because of outrageous misconduct by the government, in the form of an assault by Allison.

Instead, he ruled that Allison was acting outside the scope of her official duties when she grabbed at Crabtree. And since Crabtree was charged with assaulting a federal officer in the course of performing her official duties, Thompson ruled that the charge, under the circumstances, had to be dismissed.

“It was clearly wrong to bite her,” the judge said. “But the question is: Who provoked what?”

Cause for Celebration

A relieved Crabtree celebrated the dismissal in a courthouse hallway with some of the students who organized the recruiting protest--a group that later constituted itself as the Kristen Crabtree Defense Committee to raise funds and gather supporters for her cause.

“The right decision was made,” she said.

Crabtree acknowledged that she had had moments of doubt about her refusal in June of McInerney’s offer to defer the prosecution.

The deal would have left her with a clear record after a year. But prosecutors--concerned that public dissemination of photographs might jeopardize Allison’s ability to participate in undercover operations--insisted that Crabtree give up the rights to her photographs of the job fair.

That was a condition she was unwilling to accept.

“I was wondering if I made the right decision,” the anthropology and economics major said. “I was wondering what was going to happen to me. I was wondering if I could go to school next quarter or if I was going to have to take a year off to go to jail.”

Crabtree faced a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine had she been convicted.

McInerney left the courtroom quickly, smiling sheepishly as he analyzed the judge’s ruling.

“Everybody was wrong,” he said.

UCSD faculty and students rallied to Crabtree’s support in the weeks after her arrest and overnight jailing. Two professors appeared at a press conference in her behalf a few hours before the hearing Monday, criticizing the FBI for an attempt “to intimidate its student critics and stifle dissent.”

Bates Sought Explanation

Even Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) contributed a letter of support, saying he hoped the charges against Crabtree would be dropped.

Bates said Monday he had asked the FBI for an explanation of personnel policies related to the case. “I’m asking if it is their policy to send people on campus to a public event that might be used for undercover work,” Bates said. “That doesn’t seem very bright.”

The congressman, who met with Crabtree last week, said he also plans to ask UCSD Chancellor Richard Atkinson to bar recruiting by the FBI and other government agencies on campus. Such a ban has long been sought by student activists and students twice have approved referendums calling for the cutoff of any spending of student funds to support government recruiting.

“I think it only invites an incident,” Bates explained. “It’s provocative.”

FBI officials could not be reached for comment Monday.