SF State photojournalism major Omar Vega appeared in San Francisco’s Hall of Justice on April 20 to request a civil compromise in response to charges that stemmed from an Oct. 24, 2004 incident.

Vega, 18, is charged with tampering with a vehicle and second-degree misdemeanors in auto burglary, and is due back in court on May 17 to find out if charges will be pressed or dropped by the district attorney’s office.

Vega said asking for a civil compromise does not mean he is accepting responsibility. It only means he has to pay for damages in order to get the charges against him dropped.

Vega’s father, Toby Vega, said he thinks the university should be held responsible to some degree.
“From here it will be interesting to see what the university is going to do,” Toby said. “The lack of security (in the dorms and) the lack of security (on campus) ... are the issues here. By kicking Omar out of the dorms, they are not attacking the problem.”

Last year, [X]press editors gave Vega a semester-long assignment to document life in the freshmen dorms. Vega took pictures of four SF State students, Blake Street, Nicole Dion, Steven Stodola and John Macrery, who had found a set of car keys as they allegedly located the car, a Ford Mustang, broke in and stole cash and CDs. Vega was subsequently evicted from the dorms and could still be expelled, depending on the outcome of his case.

All five defendants are due in court May 17.

Since the incident, Vega has continued to stary busy with school, maintaining full-time student status and remaining involved with his photojournalism work.

He spent part of the winter break photographing the damage from the Indian Ocean tsunami for the Oakland Trubune, and traveled to the Iraqi war zone during spring break.