Back in February, a pro-Palestine, BDS-aligned student sit-in and protest shut down Nelson Hall on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus for a day — student activists occupying the building, campus administration locking it down in response, and police ultimately clearing the campus after 2 in the morning. 

In the middle of all that, a university staff member posted to keep people out of the building says he was assaulted and falsely imprisoned by one of the students. Now, nearly six months later, a Humboldt County judge is weighing whether to force the return of that protester’s phone, computer, and other devices — seized by campus police in the weeks after, and still in government custody today.