By
Hillary Davis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Charges dropped after news footage shows him walking by perpetrator
Charges against a UA student - who was arrested during the April 2 riot along North Fourth Avenue - were dropped last week, and the sophomore is now considering a lawsuit against the city.
Yann Gavillot, a geosciences major, pleaded not guilty to one count of misdemeanor criminal damage and one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest after officers allegedly saw him tearing down a street sign.
However, Gavillot said he "got lucky" when he later heard that a camera crew from Tucson's KVOA-TV4 news had footage of him walking by another man who was damaging the sign. It is unkown if that man has been arrested for the crime.
"In the tape, you see someone with the same hairdo I have doing the damage," he said.
"I was a pedestrian, and was looking at a male tearing down a street sign. I was close while the damaging was done, but I was not involved," he added.
The charges were dismissed Thursday after Gavillot showed a city judge the tape.
But that doesn't erase Gavillot's experience, he said.
Gavillot spent the night in jail, and he may sue the city for wrongful arrest.
"I was innocent, and I have the tape to show it," he said.
Gavillot said he was in the Fourth Avenue area that night out of curiosity, not to engage in the riots that occurred after the University of Arizona's loss to Duke in the NCAA basketball title game.
"I was wrongfully arrested that night, and did not participate in the riots," he said. "I have concerns about the general idea that every single student arrested were directly involved in the riots."
Sgt. Marco Borboa, a spokesman for the Tucson Police Department, said he could not comment on Gavillot's experience without knowing all of the facts. However, he distinguished between the concepts of probable cause and reasonable doubt as grounds for arresting someone.
Probable cause that a person could have been involved in a crime would justify an arrest. A loose tie to a crime - such as being in the vicinity - falls under probable cause, though it would not necessarily be sufficient to later convict a person.
If reasonable doubt that the person had committed the crime is later found, the person could be cleared of wrongdoing.
In addition to Gavillot, 16 other men, all in their 20s and 30s, were arrested the night of the riot for misdemeanor crimes. Six of them were UA students.
Nobody has yet been charged with the more serious crimes committed that night, including the burning of cars and an RV parked in the area.
