The six students who were arrested for blocking traffic on Highway 17 on March 3 and suspended from UC Santa Cruz until September 2016 appeared before Santa Cruz Superior Court Judge Denine Guy for about 10 minutes on Wednesday.
Restitution was set at $19,000, and they also face up to 18 months in jail if found guilty. The “Highway Six” will reappear in court for their next court date on April 30 at 10 a.m.
Criminal restitution means paying for the harm caused to the victim which can include the cost of emergency response services involved in the case. For this case, cost of the emergency response services includes the wages of the 85 responders multiplied by the hours spent on the scene and the time spent writing up reports.
During a pretrial conference on March 18, four of the six arrested students pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanors of creating an unlawful interference and resisting arrest. The other two students had already appeared in court, pleading not guilty, on March 5.
A student’s lawyer said during the hearing that “it is the people’s position that the defendants plead open to all charges as articulated by the complaint.” Judge Guy responded that this was confidential information and would not be further discussed at this point.
