| katemnorris |
Police were helped in their investigation by photos and information they received from a CSU journalist who was on scene that night.
Kodi Don Noel, 24, and Kyle Stephen Griffin, 20, each face a felony charge of inciting a riot after an April 27 party erupted into chaos in the Summerhill neighborhood off Prospect Road. Police that night fired pepper balls and used tear gas to disperse a raucous crowd of hundreds, including many Colorado State University students.
“People were on cars, setting off fireworks in the middle of crowded people,” said Darin Hinman, 29, a CSU journalism student who was news director at KCSU at the time. “It was bad.”
A total of 15 people face charges connected with the event more than two months later, and eight of them are listed as CSU students, according to an announcement Wednesday from Fort Collins Police Services.
Griffin is an employee at CSU but wasn’t working there when the incident occurred April 27. He was not a student. His duties as a Pingree Park program aid involve housekeeping, and the position is seasonal, according to CSU spokeswoman Dell Rae Moellenberg. She wouldn’t comment on whether he is still employed at CSU.
Noel was “identified as the main instigator,” according to police in his arrest affidavit. He is not a student or employee at the university. Police, with Hinman’s help, connected him and others with the riot and charged them based on their alleged roles in it, according to the affidavit.
“(Hinman) had taken several photos of some of the more active folks in the crowd,” police Capt. Jerry Schiager said. “He offered those to us. He was bothered by what happened.”
Police released Hinman’s photos to statewide media May 9 while seeking the public’s help with the investigation. On May 12, Noel contacted police and admitted he was in one of the photos. He “denied involvement” and said he left before police arrived in riot gear, according to the affidavit.
Griffin and Noel could face up to three years in prison if convicted on the charges.
Municipal nuisance-gathering citations were issued to several people who lived in units on the 1600 block of Westbridge Drive.
Ethan Hodgson, 23, a CSU nutrition and food science senior, said he wasn’t hosting a party but was home the night of the riot.
“It was definitely a block party, and then, like, after the cops came, a guy rolled up in his truck and blasted music and everyone just formed around it, and the crowd just grew and grew until it got out of control,” Hodgson said. “I wouldn’t say it was scary. It was pretty epic.”
He was given a $500 ticket and required to attend a party-planning class.
University officials expect to receive police reports next week, but it appears numerous students violated the conduct code, said CSU Dean of Students Jody Donovan. Any student convicted of a misdemeanor is automatically suspended for a year. But sanctions ranging from warnings to expulsion are on the table at the beginning of any student-conduct investigation, she said.
CSU Conflict Resolution and Student Services is scheduled to meet with all students involved to hear their sides of the story before any disciplinary action, she said.
Hinman, the CSU journalist, is now the Rocky Mountain Collegian’s editor in chief.. He was working for KCSU, a student radio station, at the time.
Larry Steward, CEO and president of Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation that oversees both the Collegian and KCSU, said it’s not their policy to voluntarily release photos to police without a subpoena. He said he was unaware of Hinman’s cooperation with police.
Kelly McBride is a senior faculty member with the Poynter Institute, a renowned Florida-based journalism school. She said that by volunteering his content to law enforcement without being transparent with his audience or newsroom, Hinman created a conflict of interest.
“I’m not saying that you don’t have a moral obligation to follow the law if you’re a journalist, because you do, but your duties as a journalist are distinct and separate from the law,” she said. “And part of what journalists do is help hold law enforcement accountable.”
McBride said that by working with police, Hinman can’t “participate in discovering the answer to that question, because he’ll be viewed as one of them.”
Hinman said he wasn’t acting as a journalist when he helped police, although he’d called the Collegian newsroom the night of the riot and sent photos to the newsroom, excluding some that he later gave to police in secret.
She said Hinman could’ve published the statements and photos for the public — and in turn, they would’ve been accessible to police.
“If you give it to everyone at the same time, you haven’t put law enforcement’s needs in front of your audience’s needs,” McBride said.
Hinman said he has taken journalism 101 and news writing classes but hadn’t yet been trained in media ethics. He recused himself from further coverage of the riot, but he never told his colleagues why.
A former Marine who returned to school on the GI bill, Hinman said he empathized with police at the riot and wanted to help.
Hinman spoke with police and shared his observations the day after the riot, according to the affidavit. Schiager said he doesn’t know the specific details of evidence used against Noel. But the affidavit relies mostly on Hinman’s cooperation.
Source-Colorado.com