Two student protesters arrested at UF accept plea deals in criminal cases

Two University of Florida students arrested earlier this year during pro-Palestinian protests on campus have accepted plea deals to misdemeanor criminal charges and will pay a small fine with no 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 violence, according to court records. Under a deferred prosecution agreement, the cases against them would be dropped in six months if they are not arrested again, pay $150 in court fees and donate $150 to specific children’s charities.

Gliwa and Bisram, who had previously pleaded not guilty and turned down plea deals, did not immediately return phone messages Tuesday. They each remain suspended from enrolling at UF and banned from campus for three years.

Meanwhile, a prosecutor confirmed in court Tuesday the office extended a plea agreement to another person arrested in the protests, Jinx Rooney, 23 of Valrico, Florida. Rooney, who was not in the courtroom, has no apparent affiliation with UF. She has not accepted the plea in her misdemeanor case, and the judge on Tuesday set her next court hearing for Oct. 8.

The pleas from Gliwa and Bisram, quietly accepted by Alachua County Court Judge Meshon Rawls two weeks ago, represent the first resolutions among the criminal cases filed against nine people – including six UF students – arrested on campus April 29 during a demonstration against Israeli violence in Gaza responding to the Hamas attack in October.

Campus police and Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested the nine, who were protesting on a grassy plaza on the campus of the public university.

The university days earlier had distributed warnings threatening academic punishments for anyone using bullhorns or speakers to amplify their voices, possessing weapons or protesting inside buildings on campus. Other rules were more vague, such as one that said “no disruption,” one that banned erecting permanent structures or another that said signs must be carried in hands at all times.

All nine were charged with misdemeanors except one student, Allan Hektor Frasheri, 21, of Largo, Florida, who was accused of spitting on a police officer as they arrested his classmates and faces a felony battery charge. Frasheri has a court hearing scheduled Wednesday this week.

Some of the other cases were headed for trials as early as next week.

Gliwa, a graduate student studying biochemistry and molecular biology, expected to graduate May 2. The university withheld her diploma over the case and suspended her from re-enrolling for three years. She is also banned from the school’s campus for three years.

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

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

Gliwa and Bisram had faced additional charges of failing to obey police and wearing a mask during a crime, but the State Attorney’s Office dropped those charges early in its investigation. The state attorney, Brian Kramer, is a Republican facing re-election in November.

In closed-door administrative punishment proceedings, a university hearing body recommended Gliwa receive only probation. That was overruled by the new dean of students, Chris Summerlin, who suspended her for three years.

At the time, Gliwa said she was deeply disappointed.

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

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

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

When she was arrested and in court records, Pringle said she was a student at nearby Santa Fe College, but the school said she hasn’t been enrolled since the spring semester last year.

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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. Reporter Vivienne Serret can be reached at [email protected].