By Dave O'Brien
Record-Courier staff writer
The Kent State Anti-War Committee plans to protest today against charges facing four people arrested Sunday after they refused a Kent Police Department order to vacate the West Main Street Bridge during an anti-war protest.
The four protesters -- William G. Arthrell, Yvette Coil, Aaron M. Brooks and Samantha S.M.J. Foster -- will be arraigned in Portage County Municipal Court in Kent today on charges of failure to comply with the order of a police officer, a first-degree misdemeanor.
The four had marched and protested the Iraq War following the annual commemoration of the May 4, 1970 shootings at Kent State University earlier that afternoon.
The march reached downtown Kent and held up traffic on the West Main Street bridge until 4:30 p.m. when the protesters were ordered to disperse by police. The four who were arrested refused to clear the roadway after being warned by police.
Isaac Miller, president of the KSAWC, said the committee plans to have members present this morning at the Kent municipal courthouse on South Water Street to show support for those who were arrested.
He said one aim of the committee is to see that the protesters are acquitted "or at least get their charges lowered" from first-degree misdemeanors. First-degree misdemeanors carry a maximum jail sentence of six months and maximum fines of $1,000.
"Probably (prosecutors) will bring them down, but we're not counting on them doing that. It seems sort of like an intimidation thing, really," Miller said.
Arthrell, 59, of Cleveland Heights said before his arrest that he was at KSU both in 1970 and during the 1977 protests of the construction of the Memorial Gym Annex near the site of the shootings. Brooks, 26, of Cuyahoga Falls, is a Ravenna High School graduate and lead vocalist and guitarist for the punk band Trendy. Foster, 20, is from East Liverpool.
Miller also said Coil, 38, a Hudson resident, KSU student and the wife of a disabled veteran, was injured during her arrest when she was handcuffed with plastic flex-cuffs or zip ties.
"At the time we thought her arm had been broken, but a muscle had been pulled. She was released from custody prior to the others so she could go to the hospital," Miller said.
The arraignments are set for 8:15 a.m. today before Judge John Plough.