Bandsmen Face Charges; Yalie Judge Drops Case

Prepared to face the consequences of a 4:30 a.m. band raid at Yale on Oct. 20, seven Harvard bandsmen stood trial in New Haven yesterday, charges with disturbing the peace and parading without a permit. Thanks to two Yale men, the case was dismissed.

The two Yalies were John K. Powell, assistant dean and chief security officer Yale, and the New Haven sixth district court judge, a member of Ell's class of 1941. Powell told the judge that the raid was carried out almost completely on Yale property, and that he considered the arrests unfortunate and unnecessary. He added that the inconvenience already suffered by the seven students was sufficient punishment.

Powell was only going through the motions of defending the students, since the judge had assured him before the short five minute trial that he would dismiss the charges. When announcing his decision, the judge said that as a Yale alumnus he felt obligated to believe Yale's story about the raid.

With a completely straight face he told the bandsmen that he had considered sentencing them to sit on the Yale side at the Harvard-Yale game, but decided that would be too cruel a punishment.

Even before the trial it was obvious to the students that no one at Yale bore any grudge against them.

As they entered the court building a New Haven police lieutenant told the students not to worry about the outcome of the trial. He assured them that the New Haven police held no malice against them, and quoted from Shakespeare's As You Like it to illustrate his point.

Trying to recover from hearing a New Haven policeman spout Shakespeare, the bandsmen took their seats in the court room to await trial. After the judge had tried several shoddy-looking drunks, he was forced to smile at the sight of seven Harvard students approaching the bench, all carefully dressed in three-piece suits.

Five minutes after it began, the trial was over, the $350 bond was returned to the bandsmen, and they were free men.