Seventeen of the 62 protesters arrested during the I-5 Liberate Palestine protest on April 15 will be going to trial for disorderly conduct, in solidarity with the only two protesters not offered a plea deal by the Lane County District Attorney’s office.

The first trial date is set for Oct. 3.

April 15, aka “A-15,” was “a day of coordinated national action to attempt to put a halt to the economy that is funding an act of genocide against the Palestinian people. Our U.S. government is using our tax dollars to pay for and fund the bombing of [Palestine],” says Madison Lusk, one of the 62 people arrested by local law enforcement agencies that day for disorderly conduct in the second degree.

“I mean, what is the real crime here? Is the crime a group of people choosing to exercise their right to peacefully protest? Or is the crime the act of violence funded by government?” they ask.

Under Oregon law, disorderly conduct in the second degree is a Class B misdemeanor where the offender holds the “intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, the person: (d) Obstructs vehicular or pedestrian traffic on a public way.”

“We believe that the ongoing violence happening against [Palestine] is a genocide, and that our complicity in it is absolutely despicable,” Lusk says.

So, along with protests across the country, Lusk took part in a coordinated day of blockading the economy by seizing major highways and bridges on April 15 — tax day. 

“I’’d always kind of wondered what I would do growing up and learning all about the Holocaust and what we did to the Native Americans — what I would do if I was facing a situation where there was a pretty clear and evident genocidal situation going on,” says Jacob Trewe, a father of two and self-employed forensic accountant, who was arrested on April 15 for protesting on I-5. Oregon State Police was the primary responding agency.

Eugene Weekly reached out to OSP for comment but did not receive answers to questions before press time.

His trial date is scheduled for Nov. 11.

Trewe says that April 15 is doubly important to him now, given his profession. He saw it as an opportunity to stand up for what he believed in, and he was arrested along with 61 other protesters. Trewe says just as the U.S. is misallocating resources by sending weapons to Israel, local law enforcement agencies were wasting taxpayer dollars by keeping 62 protesters locked up for 30 hours.

“I’’m not sure exactly why they felt it was best to keep all 60 of us locked up and tie up more resources,” he says.

After spending 30 hours in jail, he says 60 of the defendants were offered the plea deal after arraignment: enter into six months of probation, complete 40 hours of community service within 180 days while their sentencing is under abeyance, or temporary suspension.

Lusk is still completing their community service, and their sentencing is set for Feb. 4, 2025 — if they don’t comply with the terms of the deal.

Lusk says this plea deal was the best option for them, and understands why others took it as well. “People have lost their jobs. People have lost their housing for choosing to peacefully protest,”” they say.

Lauren Regan, executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, which is representing 12 of the defendants going to trial, says the reasoning the Lane County DA gave for pulling the plea deal off the table for two people is particularly “weak.”

“The district attorney’’s office has absolute discretion to offer diversion or not,” Regan says. “There really are no parameters that would make it forbidden for offering diversion. So there really is no legal reason that they could not have offered diversion to everyone.”

Eugene Weekly reached out to Lane County District Attorney Chris Parosa and his office, but did not receive a response.

“If you offer diversion to everyone, give everyone the same offer, not a single one of these people will go to trial,”” Regan says.

Now, the Lane County Circuit Court will be hosting A-15 defendant trials until Jan. 29, 2025.

“Who is more criminally culpable?” Lusk said to a protesting crowd requesting the DA drop the charges in front of the county courthouse on Sept. 23. “Those who perpetuate genocide? Or those who will go to such lengths to end it?”

“Drop the charges, free them all. Chris Parosa, drop them all,” the crowd chanted.