SANTA CRUZ — Esmeralda Hurtado, the sole UC Santa Cruz student who faced criminal charges following over 100 arrests at a pro-Palestine solidarity encampment last year, was granted a motion of diversion at the Santa Cruz County Superior Court Thursday morning. Hurtado will serve 40 hours of community service over the next six months and appear in court once more in June.
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In May 2024, community members and UC Santa Cruz students formed a pro-Palestine solidarity encampment on campus. On May 31, 2024, over 100 demonstrators, including Hurtado, were arrested when hundreds of police officers from San Francisco, Watsonville and the California Highway Patrol cleared the encampment. Hurtado was arrested again during a protest Oct. 7, 2024. Out of all those arrested, Hurtado the only person arrested who faced criminal charges, including battery on a police officer, resisting or deterring an officer, and false identification to a police officer. Hurtado pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Thursday morning, Hurtado appeared at the Santa Cruz County Superior Court diversion hearing. Hurtado’s lawyers, Lauren Cox and Ed Sidawi, had filed a motion for diversion, which prosecutor Taylor Green said the people opposed due to the physical violence involved in the incident. Despite this suggestion, Judge Mandy Tovar granted the motion, requiring Hurtado to complete 40 hours of community service over the course of six months. If Hurtado completes these requirements, her case will be dismissed and she will not be convicted of criminal charges.
“There’s a lot of emotions,” Hurtado said. “I’m really relieved it’s over. I’m really upset and frustrated that it happened in the first place. And honestly, I’m still just really, really f—ing angry that this genocide is still going on.”
Tovar appeared to be moved by Hurtado’s case, and by over a dozen character references submitted by Hurtado’s supporters, including many UCSC professors. Tovar was visibly emotional as she read excerpts of a letter from Christine Hong, a UCSC professor of critical race and ethnic studies and literature, attesting to Hurtado’s work ethic and leadership.
Tovar said that she had seen “stupid mistakes” follow young people through their lives and prevent them from reaching their full potential, and said she didn’t want that for Hurtado. She also said she is in support of peaceful protest, and that she understood what it’s like to be a college student protesting.
“What was so striking to me was the profound humanity of that judge,” Hong said. “I felt she understood the significance of enabling there to be space for another generation of people, and in this case, another Chicana protester, youth protester, to be able to continue on that very, very important political tradition.”
Throughout Hurtado’s legal process, which has consisted of seven court appearances since March, Hong has organized a large group of supporters. Around 30 community members, UCSC students and professors showed up at Hurtado’s hearing Thursday morning. Many wore shirts or accessories with pro-Palestine slogans, and others, including Hurtado, wore keffiyeh scarves to show support for Palestine.
Hong believes the group’s continuous support, like the letters many of them wrote, may have helped Hurtado’s case. In fact, Tovar mentioned the group during the hearing, saying that their presence made it clear that Hurtado had an impact on the community and thanking them for their attendance and support.
“It felt really nice,” Hurtado said. “Reading their words, … it kept me going. It let me know that I wasn’t alone in the struggle, and that was a really nice reminder throughout all of this because the state wants to make you feel alone.”
In Hurtado’s own words, on Oct. 7, 2024, she was approached by officers who accused her of using a bullhorn in a space where she was not allowed to do so. Hurtado said she was in one of the UCSC campus “designated free speech zones.” After she refused to identify herself because she was not being charged with anything, Hurtado said one of the officers escalated the situation until several officers picked her up from the ground, arrested her and took her to the county jail.
“I didn’t think I had sent my kids to university to be treated this way and not get protected,” said Graciela Hurtado, Esmeralda Hurtado’s mother. “It costs a lot of money to send our kids to university, and had we known this when she was in high school … maybe we would have found somewhere else.”
Hurtado hopes to finish her degree in critical race and ethnic studies this spring, and then take a gap year.
“I’m really tired, and I just want to rest,” Hurtado said. “But ultimately, my goal is just to keep fighting for what’s right.”
