Attorneys for Harvard Grad Students Request To Subpoena Harvard, HUPD Officer at Thursday Hearing

Attorneys for two Harvard graduate students filed to subpoena Harvard University Police Department sergeant Thomas F. Karns and the University for information regarding an October 2023 protest and following investigations.

Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a student at the Harvard Divinity School, and Ibrahim I. Bharmal, a student jointly enrolled at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School, were charged with assault and battery following a confrontation with an Israeli student at a pro-Palestine “die-in” protest at the Harvard Business School in October 2023.

If approved, the subpoena for Harvard will request evidence relating to the University’s internal disciplinary review following the October incident, which the defense alleged was not shared with HUPD nor with the Court.

Since then, the legal battle over the charges has dragged on for more than a year. The arraignment was postponed three times before being finally held on Nov. 15, 2024.

After the judge dismissed civil rights charges against the students earlier this month, the Thursday hearing was held to discuss the status of the case. The hearing will be continued in April to give both parties additional time to gather information on the case.

Lawyers for Bharmal and Tettey-Tamaklo — who did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday’s hearing — filed two motions under Rule 17, which asks the Court to issue subpoenas for Harvard and Karns.

Karns — who wrote the HUPD report following the 2023 protest — has repeatedly come under public scrutiny in his nearly two-decade career at HUPD.

HUPD temporarily suspended Karns from the department in 2019 after he reportedly called a Black officer a racial and homophobic slur. While Karns disputed the use of the racial slur, an investigation found that he used a homophobic slur.

Karns also came under scrutiny from the American Civil Liberties Union in 2008, when he photographed demonstrators to gather intelligence in civilian clothes.

An attorney for HUPD filed an objection to the defense’s request to file a subpoena.

“It is the longstanding policy of the Harvard University Police Department not to comment on open criminal cases,” HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote.

Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Ursula Knight, who is leading the prosecution, has previously accused HUPD of refusing to finish their investigation of the protest, leading to delays in the case’s arraignment.

The DA’s office declined to comment on the Thursday hearing.

Daniel Cloherty, a lawyer representing the University at the Thursday hearing, said that Harvard would be willing to share the requested information regarding its disciplinary review readily once the subpoena is formally issued.

“We don’t have a problem working to get them to the parties,” Cloherty said at the hearing.

A University spokesperson declined to comment on the Thursday hearing.

The defense also filed a motion for pretrial diversion on Wednesday afternoon, serving the motion to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office shortly after 6 p.m.

Certain cases in district courts can qualify for pretrial diversion under state law, where cases are diverted from criminal courts and resolved before a criminal record is made. A judge must determine eligibility for a diversionary program, which is dependent on a number of factors in the case — including the lack of an existing criminal record.

Both the defense and prosecution have until the April hearing to identify appropriate diversionary programs for Bharmal and Tettey-Tamaklo, which were not specified in the Wednesday motion. Charges may be reduced or dismissed entirely upon successful completion of a diversion program.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart or on Threads @laurel.shugart.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.