One of the two men arrested by campus police was charged with two misdemeanor charges by the District Attorneys office after the Feb. 11 confrontation between the SF State College Republicans and several student groups.

Campus police arrested City College of San Francisco student Jeremy Stern on Tuesday Feb. 11 after he allegedly tried to interfere with the arrest of hip-hop artist K-real, whose legal name is Muhammad Abdullah. The two misdemeanor charges are resisting arrest and battery, though the DA's office did not specify whom the alleged battery was against.

The charges against Abdullah have since been dropped.

Campus police initially charged Stern with both misdemeanors in addition to a charge of "attempted lynching." The attempted lynching applies to the person in custody, according to University Police Chief Kirk Gaston.

The California penal code 405A defines lynching as: "the taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawfully custody of any peace officer."

Campus police said attempted lynching charges are a rare occurrence.

The DA's office chose to drop the attempted lynching charges.

Stern chose not to comment saying any comments made to the [X]Press may be incriminating to his defense. He is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on March 16.

If convicted Stern can serve a maximum sentence of one year per misdemeanor.

Regarding the riot element in the lynching charges, Gaston commented, "UPD felt there was an element of urging a riot in the suspects behavior at the time. Because Mr. Stern was attempting to remove a suspect from custody in a crowded situation UPD made the arrest," he said.

According to a statement issued by campus police, Stern was arrested on Feb.11 at Approximately 2 p.m. near the Creative Arts building. The statement adds that stern had to be physically restrained to prevent him from interfering with officers arresting Abdullah.

Campus police add that Stern was given several warnings by the officers not to interfere with Abdullah's arrest.

The Muslim Student Association, along with other groups, are in the beginning stages of a campaign to get the charges against Stern dropped and [to stop incidents of what they consider hate speech said MSA president Muhammad Almahbaahi.

"We are in the planning stages of the campaign to get the charges dropped and for these things not to happen to any group," Almahbaahi said.