One Tufts senior and a Tufts alumnus were arrested at Hotung Caf?© on Friday night, but one suspect says the Somerville Police Department (SPD) apprehended the wrong revelers and witnesses agree the scene was confusing.
According to records from the Somerville Police Department (SPD), senior Daniel Chase was arrested for disorderly conduct and David Mitchell (LA '03) was arrested for disorderly conduct and assault and battery of a police officer. Both are 22 years old.
Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) performed the arrests, and SPD officers Amaral and Mansir responded to TUPD's request for assistance. Hotung Caf?© was hosting an after-party that evening for the Spirit of Color dance show.
Dean of Students Bruce Reitman did not confirm the identities of the two suspects, but said both a student and non-student were involved. "If they are students, our office will take action - we'll consider what happened, ask the student to fill out a response to the complaint from the police department," Retiman said.
Chase denies the charges against both him and Mitchell and said witnesses could prove they are not guilty.
According to Chase, the police report said witnesses told police two men in blazers charged against the door of Hotung, causing the disturbance for which Chase and Mitchell were arrested.
"From my mug shot you can see I'm not wearing a blazer, so you can see they arrested the wrong people," Chase said. "The judge said it's not a big deal, that I should talk to the district attorney. I don't think that there will be any [consequences]."
Chase also denied that Mitchell was involved. "Oh no, definitely not," he said. "And I have a bunch of witnesses to back both of us."
Chase provided The Daily with a copy of a witness report recorded by the TUPD. The witness, senior Yasmin Pena, told the TUPD she was working as a manager at Hotung when two males starting getting "increasingly hostile and belligerent" outside the caf?©'s doors.
Last night, Pena told The Daily it was hard to evaluate the situation because it was "kind of like mayhem." She said several males were pushing the other Hotung managers. "I know that the person who pushed the other manager was not arrested that night," she said.
Another Hotung manager, senior Rafael Luciano, agreed the scene "was kind of confusing. There was a group of four or five guys trying to force their way in and two of the guys got arrested." He said the male who was arrested was indeed the one who reached over the TUPD officer's shoulder to try and free his friend from the officer's grasp.
Reitman said student groups are generally not held responsible for incidents that take place at events they sponsor. "In general, there is no automatic action taken against a group just because someone has done something foolish at an event they are sponsoring," he said.
"If it was the host organization of the event that caused the problem, that's one thing," Reitman said. "If it was an individual's behavior that the host of the event had no ability to foresee and [the host organization] did not contribute to the problem, there would not be any action taken against the group."
-Katie Clark, Sarah Dalglish and Zosia Sztykowski contributed to this article
