De Simone Convicted On Disorderly Count, Acquitted on Assault

Philip A. De Simone, a Harvard graduate student arrested during a disturbance at Cheyney Ryan's trial, was found not guilty of assault and battery yesterday but was given a suspended sentence and put on one year's probation for charges of being a disorderly person.

The verdict, reached in Middlesex County Third District Court, came as a surprise considering the main issue in the proceedings had been the charge of assault and battery on a Cambridge policeman. The disorderly charge was not touched on by either the defense or prosecution.

Handing down the verdict, Judge Lawrence Feloney said, "There may be others more appropriate who should be on trial but the defendant is before the court."

"If I thought he was one of the main leaders of the situation, I certainly would not have offered him a suspended sentence," he added.

De Simone said, "My feeling is that the judge convicted me of something, and that was a political act."

He was accused of pushing Cambridge Police Captain Joseph Cusack to the ground during a tumultuous scene outside the District Court Building Oct 31; in which police clubbed a retreating crowd after an order was issued to clear the court.

Others Arrested

Three others were also arrested in the Ryan trial disturbances. Harvard students Michael Sobel and John Pennington were charged along with John Whitney, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts.

Sobel was booked for disorderly conduct, and disturbing the peace, and Pennington for contempt of court and disorderly person. The same charges that faced De Simone will be brought against Whitney.

Today Feloney granted the three men continuances for their trials. Pennington's case is now slated to come up before the same court on Nov. 25. The trials of Sobel and Whitney will both be heard Dec. 2.

At the present time the three are planning o present political defenses in their trials as opposed to the legal defense used by De Simone.

In De Simone's case the prosecution, using only two witness, contended that the accused was on the front steps of the building screaming "free John." De Simone then allegedly shoved Cusack, with his fists in the small of the officer's back down the steps.

"I was thrown to the ground," Cusack testified. His reconstruction of the event was weakly verified by Detective Fidele Centrella, who was at the scene of the disturbance.

12 Defense Witnesses

The defense on the other hand, based their case on the testimony of 12 witnesses-eight material and fourcharacter witnesses. The witnesses included a CRIMSON news editor, a lab technician at Beth Israel Hospital, four university professors (three from Harvard) and several Harvard and Radcliffe graduates and undergraduates.

Defense witnesses' testimony completely contradicted the officers. Not one of the individuals who was close to De Simone at the time of the alleged assault heard the defendant scream "free John" or saw him even touch Cusack.

Harvard Collaboration?

The prosecution in its summation accused Harvard of sending professors to testify in De Simone's defense. After the verdict, De Simone said, "I asked the professors as a personal favor." David Steiner, chief counsel for Harvard, was present during the entire trial, however.

After the surprise verdict, De Simone's attorney, Allan R. Rosenberg said, "I thought there was reasonable doubt concerning both charges, but I didn't think the judge would question the word of a captain of the Cambridge Police."