University of Florida student protesters accept plea bargain | Tampa

Two University of Florida students who were arrested during pro-Palestinian protests on campus earlier this year have taken a plea deal to face minor misdemeanor charges and will now pay a small fine without fear of jail time.

Keely Nicole Gliwa, 23, of Gainesville, and Roseanna Yashoda Bisram, 20, of Ocala pleaded no contest to a single count of resisting an officer without the use of violence, according to court records. Under a plea agreement, the charges against them would be dismissed after six months if they were not arrested again, paid $150 in court costs and donated $150 to certain children's charities.

Gliwa and Bisram, who previously pleaded not guilty and rejected plea agreements, did not immediately respond to phone messages Tuesday. They both remain suspended from enrollment at UF and are barred from campus access for three years.

Meanwhile, a prosecutor confirmed in court Tuesday that prosecutors have offered a confession to another person, 23-year-old Jinx Rooney of Valrico, Florida, who was arrested during the protests. Rooney, who was not in the courtroom, apparently has no connection to UF. She did not accept the confession in her misdemeanor case, and the judge on Tuesday scheduled her next court hearing for Oct. 8.

Gliwa and Bisram's pleas, which were quietly accepted two weeks ago by Alachua District Court Judge Meshon Rawls, represent the first resolutions in the criminal cases against nine people, including six UF students, who were arrested on campus on April 29 during a demonstration against Israeli violence in Gaza in response to Hamas attacks in October.

Campus police and Florida Highway Patrol officers arrested the nine who were protesting on a lawn on the public university's campus.

The university had already distributed warnings days earlier threatening academic punishments to anyone using megaphones or loudspeakers to amplify their voices, possessing weapons or protesting in buildings on campus. Other rules were more vague, such as one that said “no disruption,” one that prohibited the erection of fixed structures, and another that said signs must be carried at all times.

All nine were charged with minor offenses except for one student, Allan Hektor Frasheri, 21, of Largo, Florida. He was accused of spitting on a police officer as his classmates were being arrested. He faces a misdemeanor charge. Frasheri has a court hearing on Wednesday of this week.

In some other cases, a court hearing would take place as early as next week.

Gliwa, a biochemistry and molecular biology student, is scheduled to graduate on May 2. The university has revoked her diploma and barred her from re-enrolling for three years because of the case. She has also been banned from entering the campus for three years.

The university also suspended Bisram and banned her from entering the campus for three years.

A civil rights group, the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said a video of Gliwa's arrest showed Gliwa comforting a student who was having a panic attack when police arrived, and urging the student to leave with her after police asked everyone to disperse. That's when Gliwa was arrested.

Gliwa and Bisram also faced additional charges for failing to comply with police orders and wearing a mask during a crime, but prosecutors dropped those charges early in their investigation. District Attorney Brian Kramer is a Republican running for re-election in November.

In a closed administrative penalty hearing, a university hearing panel recommended that Gliwa be given only probation. The new Dean of Students, Chris Summerlin, overruled this decision and suspended her for three years.

Gliwa said at the time that she was deeply disappointed.

“This fight is not over and I will continue to fight, not only for myself but also to ensure that future students are not harassed by the university for speaking out about the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” she said in a statement.

Meanwhile, another protester, 21-year-old Charly Keanu Pringle of Jacksonville, was arrested again last week after being encountered by UF police officers on campus Friday morning. She had also been banned from campus for three years.

Pringle, who did not attend UF, remained in county jail Tuesday on $2,000 bail in the latest trespassing case.

When she was arrested and in court documents, Pringle said she was a student at nearby Santa Fe College, but the school said she had not been enrolled since the spring semester of last year.

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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at [email protected]Here you can support our students with a donation.