Seven people face charges for blocking traffic during an October protest last year. Six have accepted plea deals, and the seventh is set to go to trial in March. Although none of the charges rise above a misdemeanor, the prosecution has attracted significant attention.
Both in private meetings and public resolutions, an effort is underway to sway Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith to exercise her discretion and abandon the charges.
Each charge stems from the same incident on Oct. 16, 2023. After a student organization at the University of Iowa invited Chloe Cole, a California activist who speaks against gender-affirming care for minors, to give a guest lecture at Iowa City’s Iowa Memorial Union. That evening, a crowd of more than 100 showed up outside to protest. Over the course of the evening, protesters spilled into a nearby intersection, ignored calls by police to get out of the street and blocked traffic for 20 minutes, per a police complaint and video footage from the night.