© 2024 WFAE
90.7 Charlotte 93.7 Southern Pines 90.3 Hickory 106.1 Laurinburg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Judge Tosses Charges Against 2 Arrested In NC Monument Protest

N.C. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES

RALEIGH — A North Carolina judge has dismissed charges against two students accused of disorderly conduct and defacing a public monument after placing Ku Klux Klan hoods on statues at a Confederate monument.

N.C. State University students Enzo Niebuhr and Jody Anderson were arrested Easter Sunday during a protest at the North Carolina Women of the Confederacy monument in Raleigh.

Newsoutlets report that a judge dismissed the charges Friday after a hearing in which the students' lawyer argued that their actions were protected speech.

The officer who arrested them testified that the students used profanity and that placing hoods on the statues was like a hate crime.

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.