Missouri judge issues arrest warrant for Jill Stein after missed court date over protest assault

A Missouri associate circuit judge issued an arrest warrant for Jill Stein, the three-time Green Party presidential nominee, after she missed a scheduled court appearance on misdemeanor charges linked to an April 2024 anti-Israel protest at Washington University in St. Louis. Prosecutors had charged her with first-degree trespassing and fourth-degree assault following a confrontation in which she allegedly grabbed Officer Moore’s bicycle, causing it to hit another officer, and then kicked Moore multiple times, resulting in a forearm strain, a leg contusion and a groin injury.

The protest, held on the university’s Danforth Campus, involved tents set up in the John M. Olin Library, and participants were warned they could be arrested for trespassing. Stein’s campaign manager Jason Call and his deputy Kelly Merrill-Caye were among dozens detained. Judge Karma Johnson noted that Stein and her counsel failed to appear, prompting the warrant, while St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price Smith emphasized that the case concerns alleged criminal conduct, not the right to protest.