Jury acquits UI protester of disorderly conduct, interference with official acts

A jury found Tara Dutcher not guilty of disorderly conduct and interference with official acts on Wednesday, a rebuttal of charges that stirred controversy and brought condemnation of the county attorney’s office.

Deliberations took only a few hours, with the verdict filed by the Johnson County clerk a little more than three hours after the judge sent the jury into the deliberation room.

If the jury had found Dutcher guilty, they could have faced more than $3,000 in fines and as much as one year in jail. Dutcher is one of seven transgender and nonbinary people who faced charges in connection with an Oct. 16, 2023, protest at the University of Iowa. Five others took plea deals and paid a small fine.

Charges stemmed from a sizeable protest against Chloe Cole who spoke at the Iowa Memorial Union last year.

More: Johnson County attorney avoids censure, but not scrutiny, for charging trans protesters

Cole appeared in a lecture series hosted by the UI chapter of Young Americans for Freedom. In her Oct. 16 talk to a roughly 150-person crowd in the Iowa Memorial Union’s Black Box Theatre, she detailed her experience as a “de-transitioned” teenager and her work in recent years to share her story and stop youth gender transitioning.

More than 100 demonstrators circled the intersection of Madison Street and Jefferson Street during Cole's appearance. Police claimed Dutcher played a role in blocking the road and resisted police during the protest.

On the stand, Dutcher said they wanted to 'support the transgender community'

Dutcher testified that on Oct. 16, they decided to go to the Iowa Memorial Union, where the formerly transgender Cole was set to speak. Dutcher said Cole was the second “incendiary” speaker invited to campus by the UI’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter last year, referencing conservative commentator Matt Walsh.

Dutcher said repeatedly that they went to the IMU that night to "show up and support the transgender community."

“Trans rights are a big value to me as a trans person, a parent to a trans person and a friend of many trans people,” Dutcher said on the stand.

After nearly two hours making their voice heard inside and outside of the Iowa Memorial Union, Dutcher admitted that they were part of a larger group with "no known leadership" that entered the intersection.

Eventually, as police attempted to clear people from the northeast corner of the intersection to open a lane for cars, Dutcher testified that they noticed University of Iowa police Lt. Travis Tyrell “pushing... and grabbing anyone who came near."

Dutcher said they also saw another officer they were familiar with being even more “violent” than Tyrell, which is when Dutcher started recording.

More: Dutcher testifies as jury enters deliberation on second day of trial for Cole protestor

“It was never my intent to block cars,” Dutcher said. “My intent when my camera is out is to document instances of police misbehaving, putting their hands on people, yelling at people. My intent was to keep my community safe.”

Dutcher, who is in their 40s, laughed at the idea that the state was trying to target them as a group leader.

"These young people — who are very cool — do not regard me as a leader," Dutcher said.

In Tyrell's testimony on Tuesday, March 12, he said his body camera footage showed Dutcher instructing others to “stay in a group.”

Dutcher refuted that claim from the stand on multiple occasions. Gina Messamer, Dutcher's attorney, also implored jurors to review the video in slow motion during deliberation and observe her client's mouth and it will become clear that Dutcher had not said that.

“I have no plans to protest on (UI) campus in the future because I think the University of Iowa Police Department has no oversight,” Dutcher said.

State’s witnesses featured police officers who worked the Chloe Cole event

University of Iowa police Lt. Travis Tyrell was first on the stand. Tyrell coordinated much of the response on the night of the Chloe Cole protest.

In body camera footage shown at the trial, Tyrell was shown urging protesters from the street. He told some protesters, “What you’re doing is illegal.” At one point, Dutcher appeared on the footage and said the demonstration was not illegal.

Tyrell also redirected traffic away from the corner and up the alternate route along a usual pedestrian walkway on the University of Iowa campus that leads into Bloomington Street after facing significant resistance from protesters when trying to clear the road.

He testified that there were only around six police officers on scene when they first attempted to move protesters aside and they made little headway until additional backup arrived.

Officer Adam Herrig was next on the stand, providing his recollection of the night. His testimony included an admission that police were not expecting the crowd protesting Cole on that night to be as large as it was months earlier when conservative commentator Matt Walsh visited campus.

More: Johnson County attorney faces censure for charging trans protesters at Chloe Cole event

Detective Ian Mallory manned a pan-tilt-zoom camera on the night of the event and was the third witness on the stand on the first day of the trial.

Mallory was the officer who filed charges against Dutcher after someone identified Dutcher as the person in the body camera footage during a meeting with the county attorney’s office related to probable cause. That meeting featured the county attorney and assistant county attorney, among others. He could not pinpoint who identified Dutcher.

Dutcher’s attorney questioned why charges came more than three weeks after the event. Mallory said he works four 10-hour days rather than the typical 9-5 and was off on vacation from Oct. 20 to Nov. 1.

Mallory also monitors social media chatter in the area to help get a picture, for instance, of crowd size during a protest. In the past, he briefly monitored Dutcher’s social media when they expressed opposition to the sheriff’s office purchasing a second military-style vehicle in 2021.

Each officer admitted that Dutcher had spent time circling the block with other protesters and blocking traffic, but affirmed that once police began urging protesters from the left lane of Jefferson Street in an attempt to let cars through, Dutcher had not entered that portion of the road.

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Judge chastised public after message to jurors was left in bathroom

Judge Jason Burns gently chastised the public crowd on the first day of proceedings after dismissing the jury for the day.

The judge’s concern was with a message scribbled by someone in one of the bathrooms. Burns did not specify what was written but did say it was likely an attempt to influence jurors.

On day two of the trial, the jury was instructed only to use the downstairs bathroom to not interact with any non-jurors or writings from members of the public.

Burns expressed disappointment with the crowd and said additional attempts to persuade the jurors would have resulted in the “nuclear option" of closing the hearing to the public.

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Tara Dutcher trial: Jury acquits UI protester on second day of trial