The Region - News from Aug. 5, 1987

A federal judge threw out an indictment charging University of California, San Diego, honors student Kristen Crabtree, 18, with biting an FBI agent during a campus demonstration. Chief U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. criticized Crabtree for biting FBI Agent Marene Allison’s finger when the agent grabbed her camera during the May 14 demonstration, but said the agent’s unjustifiable use of force provoked the incident. “She had no right to lay her hands on Miss Crabtree,” Thompson said, dismissing the charge a day before the case was to have gone to trial. Under questioning by Thompson and defense attorney Barton Sheela III, Allison conceded the reason she tried to grab Crabtree’s camera as the student approached her was because the agent did not want her picture taken--even though she was in a public place and understood Crabtree was within her rights to take it.