For nearly a year, the UCLA Police Department has kept the cell phones of 40 UCLA students they arrested during the massive demonstrations in the Gaza War last year.
According to lawyers from the National Bar Association, students without mobile phones face great difficulties. When her employer couldn’t get to her, at least one student lost his job, Bruin’s student reporter said that made newspaper reporting difficult and one student missed the transition to the internship. Lawyers say some students have difficulty staying in touch with their families.
On Monday, the University Police Department said it would return the phone to the students.
Acting Police Chief Scott Scheffler wrote to The Times in an email, which came from Atty, Los Angeles. Hydee Fieldstein Soto announced last week that she had not filed charges against most UCLA and USC students and was arrested in April and May 2024.
“As of this morning, cell phones are no longer considered evidence,” Scheffler wrote. “Individuals who have not picked up the phone will be notified and can make an appointment with our property department to do so.”
But, from the date they receive written notice from the department, students will have only two weeks to retrieve their phones before being destroyed, said Cynthia Anderson-Barker, a lawyer at the Bar Association.
She said it was a timeline and was unfair to many students who no longer live in Los Angeles. She asked lawyers to be allowed to collect cell phones on behalf of students.
Students need to bring proof of identity and show evidence that they have a cell phone, she said. If others want to pick up the device, they also need a notarized letter.
According to the department’s website, the police department retained over 3,000 evidence to find and keep the property for custody. Usually, items as evidence are stored until the case is filled in.
Sabrina Darwish, a Santa Ana-based criminal defense attorney, said she and Anderson-Barker began asking for a phone call from the police department Arrested on May 6 Among the more than 40 students in a parking structure at UCLA.
Although the case is still open, no criminal charges have been filed against the students.
In July, Darwish filed a motion in the Los Angeles Superior Court to request the department to return the property. But the motion was denied as university police obtained a search warrant, accusing the cellphone of being used to commit a felony and was part of an ongoing investigation.
Two months after the court hearing, Anderson-Barker wrote to Feldstein Soto, copying Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and UCLA interim Prime Minister Darnell Hunt, demanding that the cell phone be returned to the student. Feldstein Soto’s office responded four days later, noting that the decision to release the property fell on the UCLA Police Department.
Hieu Vu, a criminal defense attorney in Orange County, said law enforcement agencies have been very common for years to maintain the key to criminal cases in some cases.
“While a search warrant can justify ownership of property temporarily, it does not allow for indefinite ownership,” he said. “A year after the search warrant sounds unusually long.”
Attorneys from the Bar Association said it has been frustrating to try to send the phone back to the student.
“In our two professions, we have never received so much back pressure,” Davish said. “They make it unnecessary.”
