Case Against Harvard Prof Gates, Arrested at Home, Will Be Dropped
A disorderly conduct case against a prominent Harvard University professor arrested last week at his own home by Cambridge, Mass., police will be dropped by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office, the Boston Globe reports.
The case made international headlines after Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is one of the nation’s foremost African-American scholars, accused the police of racism. The 58-year-old Gates is the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.
According to the Globe, Gates had just arrived home by taxi on Thursday after traveling to China to film a PBS documentary. When he had trouble opening his front door he sought assistance from the taxi driver. A passerby, seeing the two black men standing on the front porch of a stately Cambridge home during the middle of the day then called police to report an apparent break-in, the newspaper recounts.
Gates showed responding police a copy of his Harvard identification, but was also reportedly “loud and tumultuous” in his response to a police officer’s questions, according to a police report.
“The City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and professor Gates acknowledge that the incident of July 16, 2009 was regrettable and unfortunate,” explains a written statement issued by authorities today. “This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department. All parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances.”
Gates was represented in the short-lived case by Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree Jr.
A subsequent Washington Post article about the incident provides additional details.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Harvard Prof Gates Arrested Trying to Enter Own Home; Ogletree to Defend”
Updated at 10:50 p.m. to link to Washington Post article.
