Features

The ongoing battle between tree-sitter Zachary Running Wolf and UC Berkeley police took a new turn Friday when legendary Bay Area attorney Tony Serra agreed to represent the protester. 

Running Wolf, who led off the ongoing tree-sit in the grove at UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium by climbing into a redwood on Dec. 2, was arrested Feb. 23 and charged with threatening a police officer and resisting arrest. 

He was held in Alameda County Jail until Feb. 28. 

Serra recently finished a federal prison term after his conviction on charges of failure to pay income taxes. He has responded by suing the government for failure to pay prisoners adequately for work they perform for the prison system. 

During a pre-trial hearing today in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, Running Wolf said the district attorney’s office offered to settle for a three-year probation and no additional jail time.  

“We turned down their offer,” he said. “They turned over an audio tape in which one of the officers said they weren’t afraid of me, and we have a videotape from Copwatch that shows me walking peacefully to their car in handcuffs,” he said. 

Running Wolf, who ran for mayor of Berkeley last November, was represented Thursday by Serra associate Omar Figueroa. 

“Tony said he will take the case personally and will be there for the hearing on April 18 when we’ll go for total dismissal,” said Running Wolf. “I will also be suing the university for malicious prosecution.” 

The hearing came one day after yet another raid by campus police at the grove. Officers seized equipment and bicycles belonging to members of the crew of volunteers who have been supporting protesters who are currently occupying six trees at the site. 

The arboreal occupation is being waged in opposition to university plans to level most of the grove to make way for a $125 million high-tech gymnasium at the site, part of a massive rebuilding plan that includes a nearby 911-space underground parking lot, a new building joining the offices of the university’s law and business schools, a major upgrade and retrofit to the stadium itself and work on the nearby streetscape at Gayley Road. 

An Alameda County Superior Court judge is currently weighing lawsuits that challenge the university’s environmental documents on the project.