After more than a week of deliberations, a San Francisco jury on Thursday found seven people who shut down the Golden Gate Bridge to protest the war in Gaza in 2024 guilty of four misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and two misdemeanor counts of obstruction of a thoroughfare and of unlawful assembly.
Jurors could not reach a unanimous vote on the felony counts the demonstrators faced, and a mistrial was declared on those two counts. Jurors deadlocked 10-2 on a felony conspiracy charge, with 10 voting guilty, court officials said. The jury also voted 11-1 on a misdemeanor trespassing charge, with the majority voting not guilty.
The verdict means the seven — Bhavika Anandpura, Sarah Ferrell, Sara Cantor, River Allen, Rocky Chau, Conrad de Jesus and Em Tillotson — probably won’t face the maximum 15 years in prison that they would have confronted had they been convicted of felony charges. Cantor was also convicted of an additional misdemeanor count for refusing to disperse. Rather than the 15 years, they now face the potential maximum of five years in county jail, and 5½ for Cantor…