The UC initiated its first piece of litigation against the protesters occupying university-owned land in Albany by filing a lawsuit Wednesday.
The lawsuit – which names 15 defendants and lists 150 others under the title “Does” due to their current lack of identification – alleges the defendants “cut the chains securing the gates into Gill Tract, entered the property and have since established a campsite and attempted to grow food” on the tract. The lawsuit additionally alleges the protesters’ continued presence is preventing research on the tract.
“Defendants’ presence on Gill Tract, preventing the ability of Scientists to carry out their research projects, significantly impacts the University,” the lawsuit reads. “The inability to carry out the research program directly impairs the University’s mission as a research university.”
At least two of the defendants named in the lawsuit – Devin Murphy and Elizabeth Fairweather – are current UC Berkeley students, despite a campus press release stating that none of the named defendants are students.
“UC is using scare tactics – its overall approach is pretty disingenuous,” said Anya Kamenskaya, a UC Berkeley alum and encampment spokesperson. “On one hand, they’re suing us, on the other, they’re saying there’s still room for negotiation.”
The university is seeking a restraining order against the defendants and an award of monetary damages incurred “as a result of the trespass and for the rental value of the land during the occupation” – a move meant to ensure the protesters “bear the substantial expenses” resulting from the occupation instead of the university, students and taxpayers, according to the press release.
According to the press release, the lawsuit is not the only legal action the university is prepared to take, though campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof would not comment on what further legal action might entail.
Despite the filing of the lawsuit, administrators are prepared to suspend legal action if the protesters voluntarily leave the site and cease interference with university control of the tract, according to a second press release sent Thursday.
The lawsuit is the first legal step the university has taken in response to the occupation of the tract, which began on April 22 when protesters armed with hoes and seeds took over the plot of land used for research. Their intention was to start a sustainable urban farm and protest the campus’ plans to develop part of the land south of the encampment for future commercial use.
On Thursday, the university took further action by barring entry to the tract, an action that is meant “to restore university control and supervisions of the land,” according to the press release. However, people were still permitted to leave the tract but not re-enter.
“This represents the latest in a series of measures taken by the UC Administration to force the Farmers off of this piece of public farmland,” the protesters said in a response on their website. “To date, the UCPD has cut off all water to the Gill Tract, incapacitated the fire hydrant on the land, placed concrete barriers around the land preventing vehicular access and locked all entrances shut.”
Despite the university no longer permitting entry into the tract, the occupiers are continuing with their normal routine. Tweets were sent out Thursday asking for donations of foodstuffs that can be passed easily over the tract’s fences.
“Protesters are passing buckets of water one by one to the land – it’s pretty laborious, but people are pretty committed,” Kamenskaya said.
Read the text of the lawsuit below:
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The lawsuit is bogus. Read the complaint. It is a hack job.
Based on your expert legal opinion, right?
I wonder what the DA response is
Ok yes, of course UC is bigger then the young occupiers but this seems like overkill. From everything we read, the occupiers have been peaceful and doing something positive. It would be nice to UC respond with something positive, too. Do something different to get different results.
You think a lawsuit is overkill? I think it’s overkill that a group of people feel like they have the right to invade and occupy someone else’s property. I think it’s overkill that a bunch of criminal trespassers would hold that property hostage to try to force the owner to give them what they want. You think the trespassers have the “right” to be on that land? Well guess what… the University has the “right” to file a lawsuit. The University doesn’t want “different results”… they want the knuckleheads off the land. We’ll see who is right in the end.
In other news: UC spokesman Dan Mogulof gets caught lying to the press about funding (or lack thereof) for renovation of Memorial Stadium.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/05/09/concerns-mount-over-financing-of-cal-stadium-project/
The video, which just last year said that the stadium had been financed by private donations, has been removed from the campus website and replaced with a similar one omitting any reference to money.
“I don’t know anything about that video,” said Mogulof who heads the school’s department of public affairs.
When CBS 5 reminded him that his department created and posted the video, he dismissed the video’s message on financing. “It was a poor choice of words,” he said.
Dan Mogulof, inveterate liar.
Hey dailycal, where can we find the dox which the university filed about the Gill tract?
Nice, resorting to Fox News style ad hominem attacks rather than addressing the point of the article. Did you even read the text of the lawsuit posted above? Trying to kill the messenger gets you nowhere!
Mogoluf is a hired gun who would like through his teeth on anything the University was involved it. He is a hack.