Stanford student journalist won’t face charges for role in pro-Palestine protest, says DA

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (CN) — The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office on Thursday announced it will not pursue criminal charges against a Stanford University student journalist who was arrested last year while reporting on a pro-Palestine protest.

Despite his presence alongside protestors who barricaded themselves inside the president’s office last June, the DA said it would decline to charge 19-year-old Dilan Gohill after a thorough review of the evidence.

“We have no evidence that this student did anything other than cover this event as a journalist,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, adding that his office supports a free press.

Free speech and press freedom organizations, many of whom publicly urged the DA not to pursue charges, celebrated the win.

“We are relieved that Dilan can finally move past this ordeal and be a normal student again,” SPLC Senior Legal Counsel Mike Hiestand said in a statement. “We thank District Attorney Jeff Rosen for acknowledging what everyone but Stanford seemed to realize several months ago: Dilan was there as a journalist and should not have faced felony charges for the act of reporting the news.”

David Loy, director at the First Amendment Coalition, agreed.

“He shouldn’t have had this hanging over his head for so long. This is the right result even if it’s a bit late in coming,” Loy told Courthouse News. “But, better late than never.”

The controversy began on June 5, 2024, when a group of Stanford students barricaded inside the building housing the president’s office, as Gohill and another Stanford Daily reporter first reported. The students demanded the school divest from weapons manufacturers, disclose endowment investments, and drop disciplinary and criminal charges against pro-Palestine students.

Gohill — reporting for the Stanford Daily, a student-run media news organization independent of the university — was embedded with a group of protesters when they barricaded themselves in a closed campus administrative building. Some students broke furniture, spattered fake blood, and covered a security camera during the protest.

Officers from the Stanford Department of Public Safety and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office entered the building that morning and arrested a group of students, including Gohill. Gohill was booked on charges of felony burglary, vandalism, and conspiracy and later transported to the Santa Clara County Jail, where he was held for approximately 15 hours before being released on a $20,000 bail.

The university estimated the damages at more than $700,000, prosecutors said.

University administrators, including Stanford President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez, issued a statement at the time denouncing the protest. They said arrested students would be suspended and barred from graduating, according to the Press Freedom Tracker.

Afterward, the DA’s office spent nine months collaborating with the university to review surveillance footage and videos taken at the scene, according to Assistant District Attorney Brian Welch.

A team of “several” members of the DA’s office were behind the decision, Welch said, including himself, Rosen, and ine attorney Rob Baker.

“Once we reviewed all that evidence, we tried to determine what was Dylan doing once he got inside that building: was he acting more like a reporter, or was he acting like a protester?” Welch told Courthouse News.

Based on Gohill’s conduct inside the building, which appeared focused on reporting the situation, Welch said the DA declined to charge him with any crime.

Meanwhile, Stanford said it will honor the DA’s finding.

“As we’ve said in the past, we believe it was the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office that needed to determine how to proceed with this case based on the evidence assembled, and we respect their decision in this matter,” a university spokesperson told Courthouse News.

It’s a stark turnaround from earlier statements by university leaders in which they said the university would “fully support” having Gohill criminally prosecuted and referred to Stanford’s Office of Community Standards along with the other students involved in the break-in.

Although Gohill may be free, the DA’s office is still reviewing whether to charge the 12 protesters arrested for barricading the president’s office.

Gohill did not immediately respond to a request for comment.