BY BETH VELLIQUETTE

bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 918-1042

CHAPEL HILL -- Six protesters who yelled or held banners during speeches on the UNC campus last spring appeared in Orange County District Court Monday and were either found not guilty or the charges against them were dismissed.

In two other cases, one person entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, and another pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

In one case, Helen Elizabeth Koch, a Morehead Scholar, who was charged with disturbing the peace on educational property for holding up a banner, singing and chanting during a speech by former GOP legislator Tom Tancredo in April, the judge allowed a motion to dismiss the charge after hearing testimony from the state.

The other cases involved protesters at a speech by former Republican Congressman Virgil Goode at the UNC student union in April.

Six were charged with disorderly conduct.

Four of the protesters acted as their own attorneys. The main evidence against them was a videotape that a UNC Public Safety officer took of the audience as Goode spoke. A captain with UNC Public Safety said that Dean of Students, Winston Crisp, made the decision as when someone was removed from the speech by making eye contact with the captain.

Six people were arrested.

Of the four who served as their own attorney, District Court Judge Joe Buckner allowed motions to dismiss against three of them: Donald George Yeo, Rachel Love Harris and Sarah Monica Johnson.

Buckner did not dismiss the case of Jack Wilson Groves, who held up a profane banner during Goode's speech, but he did find him not guilty of disorderly conduct.

In the cases of the other two protesters who were charged with disorderly conduct, Meredith Ann Dickey entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, meaning the charge will be dismissed in six months if she performs 24 hours of community service.

Michael Brandes, another person charged with disorderly conducted, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, but the sentence was suspended and he was placed on unsupervised probation for one year.