Student Is Accused of Biting FBI Agent in Protest at UCSD

A 19-year-old UC San Diego student was arrested on campus Thursday after allegedly biting an FBI agent on the hand during a demonstration against military and government presence at the university.

Kristen Crabtree was booked at the Metropolitan Correctional Center and charged with “assaulting or impeding a federal officer.” She is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate today, said Special Agent James Bolenbach of the FBI.

Crabtree, who was one of about 20 students protesting the presence of an FBI information table and military recruiters at a university job fair, was arrested outside the campus Career Placement Center at 2:20 p.m. by four agents, Bolenbach said.

The FBI declined to identify the female agent who allegedly was assaulted and reports of her altercation with Crabtree were sketchy.

Student Photographed Agent

One student, Arnie Schonberg, said he saw the agent attack Crabtree after the student took a picture of the agent as a symbolic protest of FBI surveillance.

“We were handing out literature about CIA and FBI presence around the world and Kristen took a picture of her (the agent) . . . That’s when she (the agent) freaked out,” Schonberg said.

The women scuffled for a moment before stopping, Schonberg said. Crabtree left the area and the agent returned to her recruiting table.

The agent saw Crabtree return to the area and called for additional agents, who eventually arrested Crabtree, Bolenbach said.

“One minute she was standing next to me and the next minute they were taking her away,” student Beth Jones said of Crabtree’s arrest.

‘Your Friend Is Being Arrested’

“They wouldn’t tell us what was going on . . . . Later an agent told us, ‘Your friend is being arrested for assault on a federal officer,’ ” Jones said.

John Anderson, chief of police at UCSD, said no campus officers participated in Crabtree’s arrest. He said the FBI informed him that they would be making an arrest on the campus.

No other witnesses to the incident with the agent were available for comment Thursday and Bolenbach said the FBI was continuing to investigate.

Schonberg said Crabtree called him from jail late Thursday and that she was “doing well, although she was kind of freaked out by what had happened. . . . She’s doing better than I expected.”

He said Crabtree was one of several students who helped pass out anti-FBI literature at a booth occupied by “progressive” students that was next to the FBI booth at the job fair.

Student Margaret Difani, 30, said late Thursday that she and several of Crabtree’s friends are trying to hire an attorney for Crabtree and contact her parents, who live out of state.