"Charlottesville prosecutors dismissed a trespassing charge Monday against a University of Virginia professor, the only person convicted in an April “living wage” protest in which 17 students were arrested.

Wende Marshall’s misdemeanor trespassing conviction was being appealed to Charlottesville Circuit Court when prosecutors asked a judge to drop the charge.

“We thought it appropriate in light of the fact that the students were found not guilty in the matter. … It did not seem fair that the person who was there the least amount of time should be convicted in the sit-in at Madison Hall,” Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Claude Worrell said.

The anthropology professor was arrested April 12 as she entered Madison Hall, offices of UVa’s senior administration, including President John T. Casteen III.

She was attempting to join a group of her students who staged a protest to persuade UVa administrators to implement a “living wage” of $10.72 an hour.

Three days later, after negotiations broke down, the students were arrested and charged with trespassing.

On May 22, Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. found Marshall guilty of trespassing, and at a separate trial he acquitted the 17 students, finding that they could not be found guilty when the administrators – including Casteen – engaged in talks with the students and then had university police arrest them.

Leonard W. Sandridge, UVa’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, gave the students five minutes to leave after talks broke down, but less than four minutes later, police began arresting the students.

Downer, who watched a video recording of Sandridge’s announcement and the subsequent arrests, cited this discrepancy in his decision to acquit the 17 students.

The students vowed to keep promoting a wage increase throughout the summer semester and into next year. Casteen, who announced in March a 49-cent wage increase for academic and medical center employees to $9.37 an hour, has said the university lacks the authority to determine contract workers’ wages.“This decision to dismiss the charge invigorates the living wage campaign,” Marshall’s lawyer, Steven D. Rosenfield, said.

Marshall said she was “very pleased” with prosecutors dismissing the charge and that she will continue to stand by the students.

“I’ve been committed to the campaign since I walked on campus. A conviction was never going to stop me from doing this.”" (Liesel Nowak, The Daily Progress, June 20, 2006)

Contact Liesel Nowak at (434) 978-7274 or lnowak@dailyprogress.com.