Penn State student charged following protest surrounding Proud Boys founder speech
A Penn State student was charged Wednesday with three misdemeanors after university police alleged he ignored about 10 requests from four uniformed officers to leave the protest that prompted the cancellation of a speech that featured the Proud Boys founder.
Bram C. Woolley, 23, is the only known person to be charged as of Thursday in connection with the protest that thrust Pennsylvania’s flagship university into the national spotlight.
No defense lawyer was listed. Woolley, a student in the College of Earth Mineral Sciences, did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment. He is in his seventh semester at Penn State, a university spokesperson wrote in an email.
Woolley, police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause, was part of a large disorderly crowd about 6:35 p.m. Monday on the north side of the Thomas Building.
The crowd, including Woolley, “closed in on officers at the north doors after a confrontation occurred in the crowd requiring police intervention,” an officer wrote. Police did not further describe the confrontation.
Mounted state police officers attempted to move the crowd back. Woolley, police wrote, “slipped” into the area behind the horses but in front of the officers stationed at the doors.
“The safety concern created by the defendant due to his proximity to the PSP horses was evident when his movements caused a PSP horse to react to his presence in the area,” the officer wrote.
Woolley was one of several in the area who was “repeatedly” told to move, police wrote. At least four uniformed officers approached Woolley before he was arrested, police wrote.
Penn State police is continuing to investigate Monday’s events, including the use of pepper spray by individuals in the crowd outside of the auditorium, the university wrote in a news release Tuesday. Multiple witnesses told the Centre Daily Times they did not see police detain a man who used pepper spray on protesters, and a video appears to show the man responsible walking by multiple police officers without being stopped.
Woolley, of Lehigh County, was charged with one misdemeanor count each of failure to disperse upon an official order, disorderly conduct and defiant trespassing.
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 23.