Head of Police Watchdog Group Arraigned On Friday For Trespassing on KSG Property

Facing 30 days imprisonment and a $100 fine, James A. Herms—head of the controversial police watchdog group Student-Alumni Committee on Institutional Security Policy—was arraigned Friday on trespassing charges filed against him by Harvard University.

The outspoken critic of the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) admittedly violated a trespass order for the entire campus by stepping foot in the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) on June 22—but Herms is arguing the ban was illegal in the first place.

“Every other member of the public can go, except me,” Herms said. “I have a right to express my opinions and thoughts. As a citizen, I have a right to communicate with people as a member of the public.”

According to a letter from the University to Herms’ attorney which Herms gave to The Crimson last March, his official restriction from Harvard property came after a number of individual incidents.

The events, which occurred over a three-year span, included “making inappropriate comments with sexual connotations to students at the Dudley House Co-op, misrepresenting his relationship with the Harvard Security guards and the Committee Against Sexual Violence at Harvard....culminating with Mr. Herms’ solicitation of students to work for him by drinking alcoholic beverages with university police officers.”

Herms disputed the allegations in an interview last March and said that he was not taking the trespass order seriously.

In the incident that sparked the criminal charges, Herms said he visited campus to speak to Brian Conroy, coordinator of security services at the Kennedy School, about what Herms perceived to be lapses in security.

But after Conroy refused to meet with Herms, HUPD filed a criminal complaint.

Herms’ lawyer, Burt A. Nadler, said a pretrial hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 27.

“Harvard does not have the authority to ban somebody from those parts that are public,” Nadler said. “The damages he suffered are to his reputation in the community.”

Nadler said that Herms plans to appeal the trespass order and file a lawsuit against HUPD Chief Francis D. “Bud” Riley for defamation of character, but he would not say when that lawsuit would be filed.

HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano said he could not comment because the criminal case is pending.

—Staff writer Robin M. Peguero can be reached at peguero@fas.harvard.edu.