Kilbreth Charged With 'Assaulting' Watson in April

A Middlesex County Grand Jury has indicted James T. Kilbreth III '69 on charges of assault and battery against Dean Watson during last spring's occupation of University Hall.

Kilbreth, the current editor of the national SDS publication New Left Notes, will appear today in Superior Court for arraignment.

Kilbreth had testified at the November 18 trial of Carl D. Offner, a former teaching fellow in Mathematics convicted of pushing Dean Watson out of University Hall, that he had "seized his [Watson's] right arm in order to get him out of the building."

Watson said last night that he did not know about the indictment, but that he had testified before the Grand Jury several weeks ago after being subpoenaed. Watson would not comment on the Grand Jury hearing.

Following the bust last spring, Kilbreth was charged only with trespassing. He was was one of the students forced to leave the University by the Committee of 15 decisions.

Kilbreth said that he had realized that his testimony at the Offner trial might cause him to be indicted, but thought it unlikely since Watson had originally only identified Offner as having pushed him out.

A Middlesex County jury convicted Offner of assault and battery, despite Kilbreth's testimony that Offner was not present while Watson was being pushed out of University Hall. Offner is currently serving a four month jail sentence for the offense.

Kilbreth, commenting last night on the indictment, said, "I think that Harvard is very very worried about all these things and that they want to squash radicals."

Watson, in his original testimony con-cerning the incident, stated, "A group of people grabbed me and started to shove me out of the building. I recognized one as Offner, who was holding my right arm. They shoved me against a wall of people with enough force to knock several of them down."