Jill Stein's Court No-Show Ends With an Arrest Warrant

Jill Stein skipped court Monday. A St. Louis judge responded by issuing a warrant for her arrest.

The case goes back to Stein's 2024 arrest at Washington University, where prosecutors say she kicked a police officer during a pro-Palestinian protest.

The warrant was gone by the afternoon. Stein's lawyer, Joseph Welch, came to court later Monday, and Circuit Court Judge Karma Johnson quashed it. Johnson reset the case for Sept. 14 and ordered Stein to appear in person. Miss that one, the order says, and another warrant issues.

The case has been dragging on for more than two years. Monday did not help move it along.

Johnson had scheduled Monday's hearing for 9 AM, with a court filing specifically requiring all attorneys and parties, including Stein, to appear in person. Prosecutors were there. Stein and her attorney, Joseph Welch, were not.

"There will be a failure to appear warrant for Ms. Stein," Johnson said from the bench.

Prosecutors told Johnson they weren't asking for one. She issued it anyway and ordered Stein arrested and held without bond.

The charges trace back to the April 27, 2024, protest at Washington University over the war in Gaza. Police arrested more than 100 people that day after protesters locked arms and shouted, "Hold the line." Prosecutors later charged Stein with first-degree trespassing and fourth-degree assault, both misdemeanors

Police say Stein grabbed an officer's bicycle during the confrontation. When another officer stepped in, Stein allegedly kicked him several times in the right leg near the groin. He was later diagnosed with a forearm strain, a contusion on the back of his right leg, and a groin injury.

Stein says police had it backward. She claimed an officer grabbed her foot and tried to make her fall. "I wiggled out of his grip, you know, in an effort not to fall back on my head."

A court can sort that out. That process requires her to be in one.

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price Smith addressed the politics surrounding the case when the charges were filed last year.

"These misdemeanor criminal charges are not a statement about the freedoms of speech or assembly... They are not a statement about the subject of the protest, which was the situation in Gaza." Prosecutors, she said, believed they had the evidence to prove the charges.

Apparently that clarification was necessary.

The case started in St. Louis County and later moved to the city after authorities determined the alleged assault happened on the city side of Washington University's campus. County prosecutors are still handling the case.

Stein, 76, has carried the Green Party banner for president three times: 2012, 2016 and 2024. Democrats have spent years blaming her 2016 campaign for helping Donald Trump, and her latest run won her support among the far left over her opposition to Israel during the Gaza war. That same cause brought her to Washington University's campus in April 2024.

Monday's warrant survived only a few hours. Stein is due back before Johnson on Sept. 14.

The judge has already written down what happens if Stein skips court again. Another warrant, and this time with no guarantee that anyone moves to quash it.

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