Arraignments scheduled for today and tomorrow

Student Legal Services met yesterday with a group of students arrested at College Fest to prepare them for arraignments, which are scheduled to take place today and tomorrow.

SLS attorney Chris Sestak said there were scheduled to be about 15 students at the information session at 4 p.m. yesterday. Sestak said it was just a general overview of what to do at the arraignments.

“We’re probably not going to get into a whole lot of detail yet,” he said. “We just want to touch base with everybody, and we will set up individual appointments after the arraignments.”

Sestak and SLS senior attorney Carol Crimi will attend the arraignments today and tomorrow, something they do not typically do.

“We usually don’t attend arraignments, but with something this important we will be there (today) and (tomorrow) to help them out,” Sestak said.

He said because of the public interest generated by the College Fest riots, the way students handle themselves at the arraignments is more important than usual.

“If they come to court and everything’s orderly and calm, that says something. If it’s chaos, then people say it makes sense what happened,” he said. “Don’t show up in a Bob Marley marijuana T-shirt. Dress appropriately, get there on time and be polite.”

Sestak said those arrested who couldn’t pay bond were arraigned Monday. The rest will be arraigned today and tomorrow. Sestak said with this large of a number of people being arraigned, the legal process could run into the summer.

SLS plans to get into contact with students using the police blotter to let them know of the services available to them. Sestak offered the following advice to any student who has not been in contact with an attorney yet:

“Contact us as soon as possible if you were involved,” he said. “Speak to your attorney before you speak to anyone else. Anything you put out there is out there on Facebook and anywhere else on the Internet.”

Contact safety reporter Cody Francis at [email protected].