STUDENTS PROTEST POLICE TACTICS

FPU Dorm Locked While Search Warrant Obtained

RINDGE - The handcuffs that circled Robert Braverman's wrists made him
more victim than villain in the eyes of the nearly 30 students who
rallied in support Wednesday as police escorted him from his home at
Franklin Pierce University.

"You're the bravest one of us, Rob," supporters shouted to Braverman,
one of four students displaced from their on-campus house this week
after Rindge police allegedly found marijuana paraphernalia.

"Stay strong. You'll be out soon," they said.

Parts of the campus community erupted in protest this week after
Rindge police locked Braverman, a sophomore, and his roommates -
juniors Jeff E. Bernier, Robert C. Nicholson and Skye Perry - out of
their on-campus home, they said, while police obtained a search warrant.

But the student body grew even more enraged when Braverman was taken
away in handcuffs, facing a misdemeanor charge of possession of a
controlled drug.

"We're students," they shouted as police walked Braverman to the
police cruiser. "Not criminals."

The situation developed earlier this week after campus maintenance
workers found a tool used to grind marijuana in the students' house
during a routine maintenance check Tuesday, according to university
spokesman Brian Stuart.

The maintenance workers immediately notified the campus safety office,
Stuart said in an e-mail, and, in accordance with a new drug policy,
campus safety officials then alerted Rindge police.

Police officers then responded to campus early Tuesday afternoon, and
proceeded to lock the students out of their house while they worked to
obtain a search warrant for the house, the students said.

The four students spent the night at various friends' homes, and
police finally let them back in Wednesday afternoon after obtaining a
warrant and searching the house.

Officers confiscated several items, including small bag of marijuana,
according to police documents. But Braverman was the only student to
face charges.

"This whole thing is just ridiculous," said Bernier, 20, one of the
four displaced students. "We couldn't get in. We couldn't shower. We
couldn't brush our teeth. We couldn't do our work. ... It's just insane."

Rindge police declined to comment for the story as Chief Michael J.
Sielicki was unavailable Wednesday and today, and no other officer is
authorized to speak on the matter, according to a department
spokeswoman.

When students returned to campus last month, they were given a new
university drug policy, in which campus officials now notify
authorities of any case of suspected drug use instead of handling the
matters internally.

The new policy, adopted by campus administrators over the summer,
isn't intended to punish students, said Stuart. Instead, it's meant to
clarify both the police and campus roles in criminal incidents.

Rindge police officials told university administrators this summer
that campus safety officers are not authorized to handle criminal
matters such as drug use because they're not licensed police officers,
Stuart said.

Therefore, campus officials had no choice but to defer all such
matters to Rindge police, he said.

"We are required to accommodate the Rindge Police in the exercise of
their law enforcement privileges," Stuart said in the e-mail.

This week's incident was the first that's resulted from the new drug
policy, he said.

On Tuesday, Rindge police officers were waiting at the students' home
by the time campus safety workers had escorted them home, Nicholson
said. Campus officers had removed Bernier, Nicholson and Perry from
class, and escorted them by car down to their apartment, though
officers wouldn't say why they were being detained, the students said.

Braverman, who did not have class at the time, was home, Nicholson
said.

When they got to the house, several Rindge officers immediately
started asking the students about the grinder, they said, and began to
move to search the apartment. But they hadn't obtained a search
warrant, and the students asked them to leave.

The officers did so, but not before they locked the apartment doors
and windows, restricting the students' access to the apartment, the
students said.

Administrators did send the students an e-mail offering them housing
if they couldn't find another place to stay, Stuart said. But the
students said without being able to enter their home, they couldn't
access their e-mail, and didn't know of other available housing
options until later in the evening. So they made arrangements to stay
with friends.

"We were homeless," Nicholson said. "This just shows how ridiculous
this whole thing is."

Police officials in Keene and Peterborough said search and seizure
efforts vary depending on the circumstances, but residences are often
secured while police draft a search warrant and find a judge to sign
it.

That process typically takes hours, they said, and residences can be
secured in numerous ways, including posting a police officer outside
or inside to make sure no one has access to the residence - police
need to make sure possible evidence isn't removed or destroyed,
according to Peterborough Police Chief Scott C. Guinard.

"We absolutely will secure a residence to protect whatever evidence or
contraband we might feel is inside so someone can't get in and take it
out or destroy it," Keene police Lt. Kenneth J. Meola said.

They also said occupants of the residence may have to find another
place to sleep when the residence is secured, and Meola said generally
a resident would not be able to access their belongings unless it's
something of immediate importance, such as medication.

"Generally they might not like it, but they're pretty accepting of
what's going on," Meola said of those who have their residence
searched. "If the resident has illegal materials ... we certainly
can't allow them in to have access to it."

Guinard said police would not secure a residence unless they have
enough information and probable cause to make it necessary to draft a
search warrant.

Overall, Guinard said, search and seizure "is a complicated issue for
law enforcement" because it can be "borderline infringement on civil
rights."

At Keene State College, the campus safety department runs similar to
Franklin Pierce, in that campus safety officers do not have the
authority to arrest students, said Christopher Santiago, assistant
director of campus safety. Safety officers refer all drug cases to
Keene police, he said.

In Rindge, police allowed the students back in their apartment on
Wednesday about 3 p.m., after officers had completed their search.

But the students didn't stay home long. They quickly began gathering
money to help Braverman pay his bail.

Within an hour of his detainment, students had raised the bail money
and Braverman returned to campus later Wednesday.