Photo via Fresh Take Florida/Florida Highway Patrol
A pro-Palestinian protester at the University of Florida, Tess Jaden Segal, 20, of Weston, Florida, is seen in this screen capture from video from the Florida Highway Patrol showing her arrest on April 29, 2024. Segal, who said she is Jewish, was one of three protesters who accepted a plea agreement Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, to a misdemeanor criminal charge and will pay a small fine with no jail time.
The three students – including one who is Jewish – each signed deferred prosecution agreements Monday they negotiated with the State Attorney’s Office offering to drop their criminal cases in six months if they were not arrested again, pay $150 in court fees and donate $150 to specific children’s charities.
All the students remain suspended from enrolling at UF and banned from campus for three years.
Two other students arrested during the protests also signed plea agreements weeks ago with the same conditions.
A sixth UF student, Allan Hektor Frasheri, 21, of Largo, Florida, was accused of spitting on a police officer as they arrested his classmates and faces a felony battery charge. His next courtroom hearing is Sept. 18.
The misdemeanor cases against three others who are not UF students are still pending.
The three students who accepted the plea deals Monday were Tess Segal, 20, of Weston, Florida; Jinx Rooney, 23, of Valrico, Florida; and Augustino Pulliam, 20 of Jacksonville, Florida. Segal is Jewish and previously said in a statement that she stood in solidarity with Palestinians not in spite of her Judaism.
Pulliam, Rooney and Segal were accused of failing to leave the protest when police ordered them to do so. Pulliam initially faced charges of failing to obey police and resisting arrest without violence, and Rooney and Segal additionally faced charges of disguising their identities by wearing a mask. But prosecutors formally charged each student only with resisting arrest.
The students did not immediately respond to phone messages.
The public defender for Segal, Rooney and Pulliam was not able to discuss their cases under the office’s rules. The chief public defender, Stacy A. Scott, also declined to discuss their cases.
The students were among nine people who university police and Florida state troopers arrested April 29 during a demonstration on a plaza on the University of Florida campus. They were among the first college arrests in Florida, and all remain banned from university property.
Meanwhile, another protester, Charly Keanu Pringle, 21, of Jacksonville, remained in jail Tuesday. She was re-arrested Aug. 30 after UF police officers encountered her walking on campus. She had been banned from campus for three years due to her arrest in the April protests.
A prosecutor notified the judge this week that he intends to use evidence from Pringle’s recent trespass arrest in her upcoming trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 23.
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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. The reporter can be reached at [email protected]. You can donate to support our students here.
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