![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260702-GGBVerdict-15-BL.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRiver Allen greets supporters as they rally outside a courtroom at the Superior Court of California in San Francisco on July 2, 2026, after a jury deadlocked on a felony conspiracy charge against seven protesters accused of blocking the Golden Gate Bridge during a 2024 protest against the war in Gaza.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n
A San Francisco jury failed to reach a unanimous decision<\/a> on whether protesters who blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge<\/a> in 2024 are guilty of felony conspiracy, charges that could have resulted in more than a decadelong prison sentence.<\/p>\n Supporters, many donning keffiyehs, packed the courtroom as the jury read out its verdict on the charges against seven Bay Area residents \u2014 Bhavika Anandpura, River Allen, Sara Cantor, Rocky Chau, Conrad de Jesus, Sarah Ferrell and Em Tillotson.<\/p>\n The jury found each guilty of multiple misdemeanors, including four counts of false imprisonment, obstructing a thoroughfare and unlawful assembly, for bringing traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge to a standstill for hours on Tax Day in 2024. Cantor, who acted as a liaison between police and protesters on the day of the incident, was also found guilty of refusal to disperse at a riot.<\/p>\n Attorneys for the protesters did not dispute that their clients blocked bridge traffic, but argued that they believed their actions were legally protected because they were \u201cnecessary\u201d to save the lives of Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n The demonstration was part of an international movement protesting the U.S.\u2019s involvement in Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. Activists also shut down traffic on Interstate-880 in Oakland, and staged similar protests in San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Chicago and across Mexico, Vietnam and Australia.<\/p>\n Protesters, part of a larger group who dubbed themselves the \u201cGolden Gate 26,\u201d chained themselves to parked cars and each other in the southbound lanes of the bridge beginning at 7:30 a.m. on April 15, causing a significant traffic backup as commuters tried to travel into San Francisco from the North Bay.<\/p>\n Their attorneys said the protesters had tried expressing their concern through less disruptive means, like calling their local representatives and participating in marches. At the time, as Israel was weighing whether to invade Rafah, a city along Gaza\u2019s southern border where 1 million displaced Palestinians were seeking refuge, they believed the escalation was necessary to save lives.<\/p>\n After weeks of deliberation, the jury said it could not come to unanimous decisions on the most serious conspiracy charge or misdemeanor trespassing with the intent to interfere with business.<\/p>\n The foreperson of the jury told the court on Thursday that they took at least six votes on the conspiracy charge, which usually ended in a 10-to-2 vote split, with the majority of jurors finding the protesters guilty. On a misdemeanor trespassing charge, all but one of the jurors leaned toward finding the group not guilty.<\/p>\n Throughout the weekslong trial, the San Francisco District Attorney\u2019s office argued that the protesters\u2019 actions had significant consequences for other Bay Area residents \u2014 some of whom missed doctors\u2019 appointments or shifts at work while stuck on the bridge \u2014 and cost the bridge thousands of dollars in uncollected fares.<\/p>\n Superior Court Judge Teresa Caffese declined to give the jury special instructions to consider a necessity defense, but at least some members of the jury appeared swayed by protesters\u2019 attorneys\u2019 closing argument.<\/p>\n It was not immediately clear if the district attorney\u2019s office would retry the undecided charges.<\/p>\n This is a developing story and will be updated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The seven pro-Palestinian protesters were found guilty of multiple lesser charges after a Tax Day protest in 2024…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-384171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260702-GGBVerdict-05-BL.jpg\")
Manan Kocher gathers with supporters during a rally outside a courtroom at the Superior Court of California in San Francisco on July 2, 2026, after a jury deadlocked on a felony conspiracy charge against seven protesters accused of blocking the Golden Gate Bridge during a 2024 protest against the war in Gaza. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n