Six students from the University of Massachusetts were arraigned at the Hampshire District Court Feb. 6. Their charges ranged from disorderly conduct to assault and battery of a police officer. The arraignment is in response to the arrests that transpired during the massive rally in the Southwest residential area at UMass after the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl loss on Feb. 4.
During the rally on Sunday night, roughly 2,000 upset students in the Southwest residential area of UMass congregated together in the middle of the residential area shouting, “F*** the Eagles!”, smashing multiple electronics and getting into fights. All resulting in the UMass police officers using “PepperBall” pellets to clear the area after multiple dispersal orders were issued to no effect.
According to Deputy Director of News and Media Relations, Mary Dettloff, the arraigned students are the following:
Timothy B. Canning, 18, of Palmer, Massachusetts on the charge of rioting, disorderly conduct and failure to disperse.
Marc A. Griffiths, 20, of West Brookfield, Mass., who was charged with disorderly conduct.
Zachary B. Korff, 20, of Quincy, Mass., who was charged with disorderly conduct.
Michael P. Mahoney, 18, of Worcester, Mass., who was charged with assault and battery of a police officer, rioting, failure to disperse and disorderly conduct.
Jack H. McDermott, 19, of Weymouth, Mass., who was charged with disorderly conduct.
Joseph D. Neylon, 19, of North Chelmsford, Mass., who was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
According to Masslive, during the arraignment there were no guilty pleas entered for any of the accused.
In addition to the six students arraigned today, yesterday on Feb. 5, Jordan Ortiz, 22, of Marshfield, Mass. was also arraigned in the Hampshire District Court on charges of disorderly conduct, rioting and failing to disperse.
According to Ortiz’s arrest report, police officers gave multiple dispersal warnings, “due to the violent behavior, involving bottles, cans, ice chunks and televisions being thrown in the crowd.”
The arrest report also states police officers saw Ortiz near a crowd of roughly 20 to 30 students near Kennedy Hall. Ortiz was allegedly taunting police officers shouting, “F*** the police,” and then prompted to allegedly throw “an unidentified dark object toward uniform police officers.”
The report also states that, “His behavior recklessly created a risk to the uniformed police officers and also provoked others in the area.”
According to MassLive, Ortiz denied all charges and is set for a pre-trial conference on Mar. 27.
Along with Ortiz, Mahoney was also allegedly taunting police officers, and was observed to be allegedly throwing large chunks of ice at officers, according to court documents. According to the Hampshire District Court, Mahoney was released today and is set for a pre-trial on Mar. 30.
Alvin Buyinza can be reached at [email protected].
Kevin O'Connor • Feb 27, 2018 at 9:36 pm
Umass police for decades have been aggressive towards the students and what I have learned is there is always two sides of t he story. Many times Umass police have brought up trumped up charges against the students. On another note have they ever broken up the burglary rings that have plagued Umass students through the years or still just pulling over students for traffic violations and harassing students who throw parties?
Mark Sullivan • Feb 11, 2018 at 9:37 pm
So an “off campus” visitor thinks he has a “get out of jail free card “ because he is with his college buddies, then proceeds to drink to intoxication, ignore 3 police orders to disperse, then attacks an officer who is just doing his job! And you want this trash to get a pass! Are you stupid! Sorry, this goes beyond “a little rowdy” and puts everyone at risk. Any fun that was had had long passed , and it was time to get back to reality of work and responsibilities. This young man is about to learn an expensive lesson, and he should.
john aimo • Feb 7, 2018 at 4:05 pm
Wow umass is being aggressive. If I was those students, I would lawyer up and be ready to sue the school. A student shouldn’t risk expulsion for some minor behavior; they are paying the university tens of thousands of dollars and expulsion risk’s their future.
It’s one thing to penalize someone code of conduct behavior, but the university has gone pyscho in trying to tame down it’s image as a’ party university’ and ‘zoo mass’. The fact is that umass is a party school, students have the right to party and sometimes be young and reckless.
Penalize someone don’t expel them because they got a little rowdy. These students should fight back including filing complaints against the officers, against the police department, contact their state representatives, engage with the media, sue the school. Umass exists to -serve- the students, we aren’t subjects of the university.
Ed Cutting • Feb 11, 2018 at 4:17 pm
Wait until they start using facial recognition technology and student ID photos to expel students for merely being present. (NB: Suspension is Expulsion because you now have to reapply for admission.)
What it’s gonna take are students testifying against the budget — that would get UM’s attention in a way nothing else would. Last I heard, there are 5000 judicial cases per year — that’s the size of the freshman class. Legislators need to hear your stories…
Ed Cutting • Feb 7, 2018 at 1:33 pm
I heard something about a lit highway flare thrown at cops — that’s a deadly weapon.
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What I noticed was that the students plead innocent — that these cases were not resolved at arraignment, as they always have been in the past. I’m not sure if it’s the severity of the incident/charges or parents preparing to sue UMass for expelling their sons (which they can’t do if they plead guilty or take a CWOF). Or both.
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I presume all 7 have already been expelled — if they haven’t, that’s interesting. Sadly, it depends on who their parents are and who they know.