Court Sentences Former Students In Rent Protest

Three former Harvard students received sentences of up to 30 days in jail last Thursday for charges stemming from a rent control demonstration held September 11, 1969.

The three were among nine demonstrators who pleaded guilty before Judge Thomas Johnson at the Superior Court of Middlesex sitting at Lowell.

Claudio S. Buchwald '71, who was severed from Harvard for his participation in the painters' helpers demonstration last November, received 30 days in the House of Correction for assault and battery on a Cambridge policeman and a $100 fine for disturbing the peace.

John N. Lazarus '69 and Stuart R. Soloway '71, who was recently readmitted to the University after being suspended for his part in last spring's disturbances, were given three-month suspended sentences for unlawful assembly. Both received $200 fines for disturbing the peace and were placed on probation for three years.

The other six protestors received sentences similar to Buchwald's, although two of the six have fines of $200 to pay.

Fall Demonstration

The sentences resulted from a demonstration sponsored by the Cambridge Peace and Freedom Committee last fall at the Cambridge Election Commission. The demonstrators demanded that a rent control referendum be placed on the November ballot.

A petition demanding a referendum was signed by 8000 people, Soloway said, as many as the required amount. After being ordered onto the ballot by the Cambridge City Council, the measure wasdeclared unconstitutional by city solicitor Philip M. Cronin '53, on the grounds that Cambridge did not have a housing emergency.

The Massachusetts constitution requires that a state of emergency must exist before a city can pass a rent control ordinance.

Soloway said that the rent control issue has received little attention since the September demonstration. "Something drastic like a rent strike all over the city is needed to bring the landlords to their knees," Soloway said.