The Santa Clara County District Attorney (DA)’s Office announced Thursday that it will not pursue criminal charges against Dilan Gohill ’27, a Daily editor arrested while covering a pro-Palestine protest in June.
Gohill was detained on June 5 alongside 12 protesters who occupied Building 10, which houses the president’s office. Gohill followed the demonstrators into the building to report on the protest for The Daily while another reporter remained outside.
Until Thursday, Gohill faced felony allegations of burglary, vandalism and conspiracy.
“This Office supports a free press and recognizes that the law gives reporters latitude to do their jobs in keeping the public informed,” DA Jeff Rosen wrote in a press release. “We have no evidence that this student did anything other than cover this event as a journalist.”
Sean Webby, communications director for the DA’s office, told The Daily that their “basic analysis was: was this person acting like a protestor, or was this person acting like a journalist?” After reviewing evidence, the DA’s office found that “he was acting like a journalist,” Webby wrote.
Gohill also faced disciplinary action from the University until January when University president Jonathan Levin ’94 affirmed that Stanford will not pursue disciplinary action against Gohill in an email to the First Amendment Coalition (FAC) and the Student Press Law Center (SPLC).
The Daily’s executive editing team urged the DA to decline to file charges in a Letter from the Editors on Wednesday, writing that “the pursuance of charges against him is not only unfair, it threatens the mission of student journalism.”
The DA’s decision not to prosecute Gohill also follows multiple appeals from Stanford’s 2025 John S. Knight Journalism Fellows, free speech organizations, Stanford alumni, the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) and the Graduate Student Council (GSC).
“Mr. Gohill has lived under threat of these charges for a full nine months since the incident was captured on camera,” wrote Max Szabo, an attorney representing Gohill, in a press release. “This case was not a close call. Stanford Department of Public Safety’s months-long delay in turning over this investigation to prosecutors should be viewed as suspicious, incompetent, or both.”
During the occupation, Gohill was wearing a red Daily sweatshirt and press credentials and was in contact with his editors during the demonstrations, sending photographs and communicating via phone call. Gohill was transported to the county jail by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s and the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS).
“[The University and DA’s] actions had a chilling effect on a free press, and even though their decision took far too long, I’m glad they finally realized that journalism is not a crime,” Gohill said in a press release. “Our democracy depends on an independent press to hold power accountable and to document history as it happens.”