Felony charge against Fox 7 Austin photojournalist covering UT protests dropped

A felony charge brought against an Austin photojournalist covering pro-Palestinian protests last week at the University of Texas has been dropped.

Carlos Sanchez, a photojournalist at Fox 7 Austin, was arrested by UT police April 24 while he was covering campus protests. He was initially charged with criminal trespass. Travis County Attorney Delia Garza eventually declined all 57 criminal trespassing charges connected with Wednesday's protest.

The Texas Department of Public Safety announced last week that it had opened a criminal investigation into Sanchez.

On Friday, Justin Winkler, an agent with the DPS, filed an arrest warrant for Sanchez on a charge of assault on a peace officer, a felony. The affidavit described Sanchez "(lunging)" toward a highway patrol officer and "striking" him in the neck with a camera.

On Monday, a municipal judge directed the Travis County sheriff's office to cancel the warrant, "per Officer J. Wikler (sic)," court records show.

Gerry Morris, Sanchez's defense lawyer, told the American-Statesman that the DPS detective in the case withdrew the warrant after acknowledging it did not allege a felony crime, but the officer could resubmit it later. Morris said he and Sanchez found out that the charge had been dropped when Sanchez arrived at the jail Tuesday morning to turn himself in.

The DPS and Kevin McPherson, news director for Fox 7, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Statesman staff editor Tony Plohetski contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Felony charge against Austin journalist covering UT protests dropped