What started as an early morning venture to buy a Slurpee from a local 7-Eleven turned into what Cortney Woycik said was one of the worst events of her life.
After being arrested for acting with disorderly conduct and obstructing and hindering an officer during the April 2-3 disturbances, the psychology junior said she will never be the same.
And although Woycik said her arrest was unprovoked - her Breathalyzer test recorded a blood-alcohol level of 0.0 - East Lansing police said it was most likely justified.
Woycik was one of 43 people arrested that night.
As clouds of tear gas drifted through Cedar Village and the downtown area, a police-estimated crowd of about 3,000 people wandered the city, causing $5,775 in property damages. Nearly $2,500 of these damages were attributed to a stolen statue of a duck, which was later returned.
Eight complaints against officers came into the East Lansing Police Department. But no officers were charged with any wrongdoing following each investigation, East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said. Area police administrators concluded that officers either acted with an appropriate amount of force, or were unidentifiable.
Of the seven agencies patrolling that evening, only ELPD officers had identification numbers on their helmets. Many of the 297 officers on duty had no form of identification on their riot gear, which made it nearly impossible to identify an officer, Wibert said.
To try and answer the question of what happened that night, the East Lansing City Council created an independent commission to investigate the disturbances and police and student actions.
They have met for nearly four months and there are still many unanswered questions relating to that night. The commission has not reached a conclusion as to what happened that evening or if police acted with too much force.
But one thing is now certain.
"There are things that happened that night that shouldn't have happened," Wibert said.
A personal account
Woycik said she and her boyfriend, political science and pre-law senior Drew Hunter, were walking into East Lansing's downtown area during the early hours of April 3. Clouds of tear gas loomed in the air, causing crowds and bystanders to scatter.
Although a police line was formed nearby, she said she and her boyfriend continued on their quest for a Slurpee. After looking in the direction of the last officer in the line, who was stationed about 7 feet away, both were pepper sprayed, Woycik said.
Hunter, who threw his hands up in protest, was tackled to the ground and arrested by four police officers, Woycik said, adding that she was arrested after taking a step forward.
"This has put me through a lot," Woycik said in late June. "I will be sitting in class and start to tear up about it. I feel so powerless - you can't stand up for yourself because the risks are unbearable for college students."
According to Woycik's arrest report, she tried to pull an officer away from her boyfriend while he was being restrained by police.
"I would never grab an officer's arm," she said. "I am sure everyone says that, but it's just not true. They did exaggerate (in the report). There is no doubt about it."
East Lansing police Lt. Kevin Daley said it is highly unlikely Woycik didn't grab an officer's arm because police reports are official documents.
"I don't think anybody would have made anything up," he said. "What does anybody have to gain from it? I am going to say she is probably guilty. There are many repercussions for a false arrest. I would stand by what the officers said."
Woycik, who pleaded no contest to the charges against her, said if she stays out of legal trouble for at least six months and pays a fine, she will avoid sentencing and the incident will be cleared from her record.
Although Woycik did not go to trial, she said she wishes she would have fought harder to protect her innocence.
"When I went in to take the plea bargain, I couldn't do it," she said. "I was bawling my eyes out. The risk of going to trial was so great; that has a complete effect on your future.
"If I had to go to jail for even three nights, that would be total hell for me."
Scott Mertens defended Woycik in court and said accepting the bargain was the right thing to do.
"We had a very triable case," he said. "But what you are dealing with is the testimony of a police officer against the testimony of an individual - that is a risk when you go to trial."
Police investigations
Complaints ranging from mass pepper sprayings to teargassing small crowds, were reported to police administrators by students and pedestrians out that evening. But the ELPD, MSU police department and Michigan State Police concluded that there was no excessive use of force in some cases.
MSU police officers Thomas Miller and Andrew Koerner, along with one officer from the Michigan State Police, were found to have acted within legal bounds, police officials said.
Miller was investigated after advertising senior Scott Riddle spoke of being mistreated by police at an ASMSU forum held to discuss the disturbances. After Wibert heard the testimony, he said he looked into the incident, found that an MSU police officer had arrested Riddle and then forwarded the information to the appropriate agency.
In his complaint, Riddle said he lost feeling in his hands after being handcuffed with plastic restraints by officers. He was then put on his knees and pepper sprayed, according to his statement at the forum. Riddle said he was photographing a group of officers in the Cedar Village area prior to his arrest on April 2.
Another investigation was conducted when Benjamin Wickerham, a zoology senior, filed a complaint against police following his arrest. MSU officer Koerner arrested Wickerham, police documents stated, but did not list details of the complaint.
A similar scenario was investigated by state police when an individual reported being pepper sprayed after he was handcuffed. Although no formal complaint was filed, police took the claim seriously, state police Lt. Eric Johnson said.
Five other situations were investigated by Lt. Joseph Hinz of the East Lansing Police Department.
One complaint was from an unidentified man and his girlfriend who wanted to enter Cedar Village. When he asked an officer how he could return to his girlfriend's home, he was turned away by one officer and then threatened with a nightstick by another, documents stated.
According to the complaint form, the Michigan state and MSU police were operating in that area. Because the officers didn't have forms of identification, the police department couldn't track down the offenders.
Another complaint was from an unidentified woman who witnessed people shot with tear gas in the downtown area, documents stated. Hinz wrote that the woman did not return calls from the police department.
An account of one woman being hit in the back with a canister of tear gas was proved to be untrue, documents stated. Hinz tracked the woman down, and she said she had tripped over her sandal.
A man and his friends who were pepper sprayed by police on their way back to the Marriott at University Place, 300 M.A.C. Ave., also filed complaints. While trying to enter the hotel, the group, with hotel passes in hand, was not allowed to pass a riot line and was pepper sprayed for not cooperating, documents stated.
The officer who sprayed the group said they returned multiple times to enter the hotel after being told to take an alternate route, documents stated.
The last complaint dealt with a man who was upset with the use of tear gas in the downtown area, documents stated. Because there was no specific officer at fault, no one was found to have acted inappropriately.
After listening to people recount experiences of improper treatment by police during the disturbances at an independent commission meeting, Wibert issued a formal apology to those who were caught up in the events of that evening.
Anyone who was teargassed while trying to get home, improperly pepper sprayed or didn't hear the warning to disperse deserves an apology, Wibert said.
"I don't feel that we owe an apology to everyone," Wibert said, adding that those who were trying to light fires and injure officers with bottles or rocks were in the wrong.
The cost of a disturbance
The large-scale police force used during the April 2-3 disturbances is costing East Lansing more than 30 times the amount of property damage incurred during the evening's events.
The city will shell out about $190,389 to cover the expenses of borrowing officers from other agencies, police overtime and clearing the streets of debris, a police report compiled at the request of the City Council stated.
City officials said the 297 officers patrolling city streets were necessary to prevent severe destruction of cars and personal property.
"When crowds grow to such large sizes and act with impunity, anything can happen," City Manager Ted Staton said, adding officials weren't prepared for the 1999 riot, when 10,000 people caused about $250,000 in property damage. "We would make the same decision to have the officers again, even with the cost."
Former East Lansing police Chief Lou Muhn, who retired on April 30, made a recommendation to city officials to increase the police force in the area for March Madness games, Staton said.
Not everyone viewed additional officers out on the streets as a good thing. Some students said having large groups of officers in riot gear created a sense of hostility and tension between people.
"That is probably a little overkill," microbiology sophomore Trisha Westerhof said in May. "Maybe, instead of having so many officers, they could just put them in problematic areas."
Many who were out during the night of the disturbances said police acted with excessive force when teargassing or pepper spraying people.
"The crowds in Cedar Village were rowdy, but they were peaceful for the most part," said Jennifer Gumas, a 2005 MSU graduate at an independent commission meeting in July. "After the tear gas was let off, people became very agitated. Things were thrown and fires were started after the tear gas was thrown. Large crowds don't necessarily imply there is going to be a riot."
Special attention is paid to the police department's overtime budget, East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows said. Because MSU is home to a variety of unusual activities, including visits from heads of state and conferences, more money must be set aside for departmental costs, he added.
"My guess is there will be no need for a budget adjustment," he said. "I don't think we are going to have to dip into reserve funds to offset those costs."
Some of the costs incurred that evening weren't even beneficial to police. Nearly 90 percent of the video footage taken by a Michigan State Police helicopter during the disturbances was unusable by officers on the ground that night.
Technology that would have allowed police at a command center to view video taken from the air malfunctioned both in the helicopter and on the ground, a police report submitted to the East Lansing City Council stated. Officers were then forced to rely on radio communications from the helicopter to pinpoint the movements of the crowds.
"We couldn't see anything," East Lansing police Lt. Kim Johnson said. "The footage we did see didn't help us at all - it was useless."
An East Lansing Police Department intra-office e-mail obtained by The State News through a Freedom of Information Act request reported that having a helicopter in the air for one hour would cost approximately $273.
Speaking out
Students who want to share their experiences from the disturbances can do so at an independent commission meeting. A tentative meeting schedule can be found at the city of East Lansing's Web site at www.cityofeastlansing.com.
All meetings are open to the public and commissioners have said they would like to hear more testimony from students. The next meeting is scheduled to take place on Aug. 31 at the Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbott Road.
