Undergrad May Charge False Arrest

A Winthrop House junior arrested earlier this month for posting handbills on a lamppost said yesterday that she may file a complaint against the arresting officer.

Lorelee S. Stewart '86, who signed papers Wednesday clearing her arrest record, has met several times over the past week with Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III to figure out how to go about filing the complaint.

"We're running up against some brick walls" in the Cambridge police department, Stewart said. "Epps has just been trying to get through the red tape."

The current debate in Cambridge City Council over a civilian police review board is complicating the procedures, she said.

Stewart was arrested by a Cambridge police officer on the night of October 2 after taping Radcliffe Lesbians Association posters to a Dunster St. lamppost.

Stewart is president of the association.

According to David Nies, a lawyer who was in the courtroom when Stewart pleaded and who argued her case for her, gratis, Stewart risked as much as $1500 by pleading not guilty to the charges.

When she refused to plead guilty and pay $65 in fines and court costs, Nies said, Stewart left herself vulnerable to the four-digit court costs.

Instead, Middlesex District Court Judge Lawrence F. Feloney dismissed the charges after considering the costs to the city of a prolonged trial, Nies said.

Stewart said she was harassed because she was a Harvard student, citing what she termed strange behavior on the part of arresting patrolman Thomas Tosi.

According to Stewart, Tosi stopped her postering and confiscated the handbills, and then after discovering she was a Harvard student asked her if she had a job and if her parents supported her before asking her to leave.

At this point, added Stewart, one of her two companions asked for the posters back. Tosi refused, she said, and asked if Stewart's friend wanted her to be arrested.

When one of her companions suggested they take down Tosi's badge number, she said, Tosi said he wasn't going to be "Mr. Nice Guy" anymore, and arrested her.

Police spokesmen could not be reached for comment last night.