Student Charged In Spring Riot At UNC Is Acquitted

Rocky Mountain News
November 10, 2001

News Staff

Greeley – The third student trial stemming from a campus riot at UNC ended Friday with a third acquittal.

A Weld County District Court jury deliberated for two hours in finding Jason Daigneault, 19, a sophomore from Colorado Springs, not guilty on a felony charge of engaging in a riot.

“You don’t know how happy I am,” Daigneault said, wiping away tears as friends gathered around him to celebrate.

Daigneault testified that his behavior during the April 28 melee on the University of Northern Colorado campus was drunken and crude, but he said he did not throw a concrete chunk at riot police.

“I totally did wrong,” he said. “I was wrong most of the night.”

The first two trial also ended in acquittals, one ordered by the judge. About 20 more students face trial and sentencings on plea agreements scheduled into April.