Protestor’s assault of cop will go to grand jury

The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s office will seek to indict protester Thomas Whitehead for allegedly assaulting a police officer during a protest on the Rutgers University campus on April 30.

He was accused of hitting a police officer with a flagpole fashioned from a Swiffer mop handle attached to a Palestinian Flag outside the Hillel House, a meeting place for Jewish students; a group had been protesting a meeting with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly), then a candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Three Rutgers students were also arrested.

Whitehead’s case is set to go to the grand jury on June 25.

The 25-year-old Whitehead, a former Ph.D. student at Cornell University, has been held without bail at Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center.

This was the second time in less than a week that Whitehead, a Cranford resident, was charged with attacking a police officer: he was involved in an April 23 incident in Jersey City that was referred to the Hudson County prosecutor on an indictable offense.

The prosecutor said the assistant prosecutor in Hudson County had not returned her phone calls.

In May, Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Vincent Vitale said Whitehead “kicked and punched the sergeant who attempted to place him under arrest, and the defendant refused to comply.”  He said Whitehead “had to be taken to the ground and had to be given numerous commands to stop resisting.”

Whitehead said noting during a short, five-minute court appearance in New Brunswick this morning before Superior Court Judge Scott Moynihan, except on his way out of the courtroom, when he shouted, “Free Palestine.”