Judge delays hearing in UCSC protester phone seizure case as supporters pack courtroom

A Santa Cruz County Superior Court hearing over what a civil rights attorney is calling an “egregious” seizure of a student activist’s phone was postponed Monday, the latest development in ongoing legal conflicts between UC Santa Cruz and pro-Palestinian campus protesters.

The case centers on Laaila Irshad, a third-year student whose phone was confiscated by campus police six months ago.

UCSC police seized Irshad’s phone last Oct. 1. They provided her search warrant documents that showed the seizure was related to an investigation into alleged vandalism but gave no further information about the offense as the search warrant was under seal.

The search warrant granted authorities broad access to all content on Irshad’s device, which dates back to when she was in fifth grade. Six months after her phone was seized, Irshad has not been charged with any vandalism-related offense.

Irshad’s attorneys filed a petition asking the Santa Cruz County Superior Court to order UCSC police to return her phone and to declare the search warrant illegal because it was “fatally overbroad and grossly punitive.” They are arguing that police officers seized the student’s phone in an act of retaliation just weeks after she and two others filed a lawsuit accusing UCSC of illegally banning protesters from campus without due process after they were arrested at the Gaza solidarity encampment last May. That lawsuit is still pending.

More than 50 UCSC students and community members attended the hearing Monday morning at the Santa Cruz County courthouse to show their support for Irshad. The judge postponed the hearing to April 30 at the Watsonville courthouse at 8:30 a.m.

Thomas C. Seabaugh, a Los Angeles-based civil rights attorney representing Irshad, told supporters outside the courthouse he’s “never seen something so egregious as this search warrant” in his 15 years of practicing law.

“There is support for democratic rights, and there are limits on what the government can do, if you insist on them,” he said.

The hearing was postponed largely due to a technicality. The case was reassigned after Judge Stephen Siegel determined that Judge Erika Ziegenhorn, who originally signed the search warrant and has since transferred to the Watsonville courthouse, should preside over the case, according to Chessie Thacher of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, one of Irshad’s attorneys.

The phone seizure represents one of several enforcement actions that have intensified tensions between the UC Santa Cruz administration and pro-Palestinian demonstrators. According to attorneys involved in protest cases, Irshad’s phone was one of three devices seized from students by campus police this past year, amid what activists describe as increasingly aggressive responses to campus demonstrations.

Irshad, professor Christine Hong and student Hannah (Elio) Ellutzi are all suing UCSC after they were arrested and cited with failure to disperse, alongside 124 people at the encampment located at the base of the UCSC campus last May 30 and 31. UCSC officials banned them from campus for two weeks. Thacher and Seabaugh are defending Irshad in that case, too.

Only one student is facing formal charges related to the May encampment arrests. The student was arrested a second time during a campus rally in October after using a megaphone, which the university said was against campus policies. The district attorney’s charges are related to both arrests.

The student, who has requested to remain anonymous out of fear for their safety, is accused of “battery upon a peace officer,” “giving false information to a police officer” and “riot, rout: remaining after warning to disperse.” They recently pleaded not guilty on all charges and have a pretrial conference scheduled for May 1.

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