The Travis County Attorney's office has formally dismissed all charges against a former UT faculty member who was arrested after pro-Palestinian demonstrations in 2024.
Rich Heyman, a former lecturer at UT, was in an altercation with state police during a student-led protest in April 2024. The Texas Department of Public Safety accused Heyman of assault, criminal mischief and interfering with public duties. The charge of interference with public duties was dismissed earlier this year, but the charges of assault and criminal mischief were dismissed this week in a Travis County court. State troopers arrested Heyman near his home in May 2024, and he was fired the same day.
Heyman believes whole ordeal was meant to silence him for his political views. He said the charges have been a "cloud" over the past year and a half.
"That was ... the point of the whole arrest – just to harass me and to send a message to other people around the state and especially faculty," he said, "that we should not protest, and we should not object to the abuse of our First Amendment rights by militarized troops on our college campuses, which is what I was doing."
The former lecturer of urban studies attended multiple demonstrations during the spring of 2024, when students gathered on campus to protest Israel's war in Gaza. The day of his arrest, Heyman said he felt the need to intervene when he saw state troopers arresting students and using their bikes to battle back protesters. An arrest affidavit from a DPS trooper said Heyman cursed at him and that "he broke my state-issued bike bell."
Heyman said the county filed a motion to dismiss the criminal mischief charge and the assault charge – both misdemeanors – after DPS failed to submit evidence.
KUT reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Travis County attorney's office for comment on the dismissal, but neither responded by deadline.
Police arrested more than 100 people during a wave of pro-Palestinian protests in spring 2024, but Travis County Attorney Delia Garza later dismissed the bulk of those charges, citing a lack of evidence.
The dismissal of Heyman's charges come as UT Austin – and students – are grappling with a new state law that requires non-affiliated speakers to be vetted by university administrators. Students told KUT the administrative approval process can take weeks, and the law's enforcement raises free speech concerns.
Heyman said that state law, dubbed the Campus Protection Act, erodes the role of universities as forums for the free exchange of ideas.
"University campuses have been traditional public forums since they were founded," he said. "So the idea that the ... government can decide on its own what is a traditional public forum for a matter of law and for assembly and free speech is absurd, right? The whole point of the First Amendment is that the government can't decide what is a traditional public forum."
