Two students were arrested by Waltham police and Brandeis public safety officers in the early morning Sunday, March 30 following fighting that broke out during a party in the Foster Mods. Witnesses estimated 11 officers, including seven from the Waltham Police Department, arrived to break up the unregistered party at about 2 a.m. after the Department of Public Safety received two calls reporting a fight. One of the callers suggested a gun may have been present, but no weapon was found.

Waltham police arrested 20-year-old Rashad Baldwin '11 for disorderly conduct. Detective Sgt. Tim King of the Waltham Police Department said Baldwin repeatedly ignored officers' request that he leave the scene at Mod 22, swore at the officers and incited the crowd. Baldwin denied each of these accusations and said no officer read him his Miranda rights.

"A bunch of lies were in the police report," Baldwin said of the Waltham Police Department's account of the incident.

A Brandeis officer arrested 21-year-old Walaa Sbait '08 for disorderly conduct soon after Baldwin's arrest, and both were taken to the Waltham Station that night and held in cells until about 5:30 a.m. Sbait declined to comment Monday night.

Sbait and Baldwin appeared at an arraignment March 31 and have pretrial hearings scheduled for May 8, the clerk's office in the Waltham District Court said. Baldwin said he is acquiring legal representation.

According to the Waltham police report, when officers attempted to break up the party, Baldwin repeatedly ignored an officer's command to leave and shouted: "I'm not fucking leaving. I'm waiting for my brother." Baldwin said he never uttered a vulgarity and the officer only asked him once to leave.

"I never told them I wasn't leaving," Baldwin said, adding that he only said he didn't live at the residence and that he was waiting for his brother, and one of his friends, to come outside. He said he then turned his back to the officer, began walking away and started to make a call on his cell phone to a friend to pick him up. It was then that a Waltham officer arrested him, he said.

"I guess I didn't move fast enough for him," Baldwin said with a note of sarcasm. "If you don't move right away when the cops tell you to leave, you get arrested."

Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said some from the crowd were being uncooperative. "Police repeatedly asked individuals to leave, and they didn't comply," he said.

When officers arrived at the Mod, Callahan said the fight was still going on and one student was being assaulted. Witnesses said neither Sbait nor Baldwin initiated the fight, nor were they assaulted.

Mod 22 resident Gabriel Gaskin '08 said a group of about 10 non-Brandeis individuals had shown up at the party uninvited around 11:30 p.m., and at about 1:30 a.m., several of them physically attacked a couple of Brandeis students, initiating the fight. Baldwin and Gaskin said Baldwin helped break up the fight.

The non-Brandeis individuals ran out the back door of the Mod onto South Street just before officers arrived, Gaskin said. The Public Safety report said 15 individuals were seen running on South Street. Callahan said Public Safety is looking for these individuals.

Because they heard a weapon might be involved, University officers-who are unarmed-called Waltham for backup. Both groups of officers arrived on scene to find about 50 people yelling and running around, King said.

Baldwin said nowhere near 50 people were present, and the scene was not that chaotic.

King said Baldwin was making it difficult for officers to disperse the party guests, as he was standing in front of the door to the residence, blocking the way for others to leave.

The report states Baldwin was getting the crowd riled up, as they started chanting, "Fuck the police," and "Fuck you pigs," and "appeared to be following the lead of Baldwin."

Callahan described the scene as disorderly and out of control as well.

Baldwin denied these claims. "I'm not some type of ringleader. No one was following me," he said. "I didn't feel like the crowd was getting intense. They were just wondering and questioning why I was being arrested."

When Baldwin was cuffed outside the Mod, "he was calm. He wasn't upset; he wasn't riled up," Gaskin said.

Once Sbait saw that Baldwin was being arrested, he approached a Brandeis officer and asked in a calm voice why Baldwin was getting arrested, Gaskin said.

The Brandeis officer, Gaskin said, pushed Sbait against the Mod, even though he clearly said, "Officer, I'm not resisting arrest."

"It's crazy," Baldwin said. "It really surprises me how they handled the situation with no professionalism at all." Baldwin, who is black, also suspects that his race played a role in the officer's decision to arrest him.

Baldwin said he and Sbait were never given the opportunity to write up their side of the story at the station.

They were released on personal recognizance, King said.

Sbait, a Palestinian student from Haifa, was arrested by Brandeis officers outside the Mods in October 2006 after a heated confrontation with an officer.

Brandeis students arrested at a house party on South Street last semester complained that Cory Amarante, one of the Waltham officers who arrived at Mod 22, had used excessive force.

Mod 22 suitemates may face University judicial action, Gaskin said.