Former student cleared of felony charges from 2016

An all-white jury cleared a former ETSU student of felony charges stemming from a counter-protest in 2016 over the summer.

Tristan Rettke, 21, was charged with civil rights intimidation, disorderly conduct and disrupting a meeting after he showed up at a Black Lives Matter protest at Borchuck Plaza on Sept. 26, 2016, wearing a gorilla mask, overalls and a white T-shirt, while holding a rope, bananas and a burlap sack emblazoned with a confederate flag. 

At the time, Rettke told one BLM demonstrator who asked why he was wearing the mask “I identify as a gorilla. I look like you.” 

Jurors cleared Rettke of felony civil rights intimidation and disorderly conduct, but convicted him on one count of misdemeanor disrupting a meeting and recommended a $500 fine. 

Following the acquittal, Rettke’s attorney, Patrick Denton, told the Johnson City Press the acquittal was “a vindication for the First Amendment.” 

The issue of free speech was central to defense, who conceded Rettke’s actions were racist, but that he had the freedom to express those views. Rettke’s 2016 arrest was criticized by the ACLU of Tennessee and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, with both groups pointing to a lack of evidence suggesting he threatened anyone. 

During her opening statements, Assistant District Attorney General Erin McArdle asked if Rettke tying the rope he brought into a noose was “to exercise his right to free speech, or was it done to intimidate the people who were there?” 

Students who testified during the two-day trial said they felt scared and frightened, with WCYB reporting one woman said “the thought kept running through my mind, like, am I going to make it home to my mom?”  

Denton said the civil rights intimidation charges didn’t fit because students were “angry and they’re offended, they’re not scared and intimidated. Nobody is hiding their face or running away.” 

“If you look at the elements of the civil rights intimidation … it’s clear they didn’t fit the conduct out there that day,” Denton told the Johnson City Press. “No one was ever threatened, and certainly there was no proof on the idea he was doing this to silence anyone else.”

If convicted on the civil rights intimidation charges, Rettke could have faced up to two years in prison. 

At the time, ETSU student and demonstrator Jaylen Grimes told the East Tennessean he felt Rettke was “just trying to get a reaction out of us.” 

“If we would have lashed out violently, that would have been another problem and we would’ve all got in trouble … and like I said, that’s not why we’re here,” he said. “We were here as peaceful (demonstrators), so we had to remain as such.”