A Santa Barbara County judge on Friday moved to quash UC Santa Barbara Police’s search warrant for Instagram accounts in an investigation of the occupation of Girvetz Hall in June.

The decision means that UCPD won’t have access to the accounts and the information of individuals who interacted with the account.

Judge Pauline Maxwell said the warrant was too broad and violated privacy. She said that while there is compelling interest to identify those responsible for the occupation at Girvetz Hall, there isn’t enough interest to allow UCPD to see everyone who interacted with the Instagram accounts. 

“I think that today was a good day for America and the United States Constitution,” said Addison Steele, a local criminal defense attorney defending someone who may be affected by the release of information.

Jonathan Miller, an attorney for the UC Regents, a governing board for the University of California system, argued in court that they had sufficient evidence to show the connection between the Instagram accounts and the campus occupation. 

On Sept. 11, the UCSB Police Department got a search warrant for the @saygenocideucsb and @ucsbliberatedzone Instagram accounts for its investigation into alleged kidnapping, burglary, vandalism and conspiracy during the Girvetz Hall takeover. 

A motion to quash the search warrant was filed on Sept. 25, arguing that there was no probable cause to link the accounts to alleged crimes committed in the building.

The warrant requested various records from the two Instagram accounts, including archived data, linked accounts, communications content, records of devices used by the accounts, IP address logs, location information, photos and videos, and other personal information of anyone who authored the account or interacted with the account by liking or commenting on posts.

On Nov. 22, Steele argued in court that there is no probable cause to suggest there’s a connection between the group of people who occupied Girvetz Hall and allegedly committed the crimes to the person or people who posted on the two social media accounts.

Miller argued that an @saygenocideucsb post created on June 10 shows the damage in Girvetz Hall and takes responsibility for the damage, and that the data included in the search warrant would help identify the people responsible for the takeover-related crimes.  

Steele said it is likely that UCPD will consult with the District Attorney’s Office and write up a new warrant that is less broad; however, he doesn’t know how they would get probable cause in this case. 

“I don’t know what kind of warrant can be created in this situation,” Steele said. “It appears to me, all they know is there are Instagram pages with political speech, and people who may or may not have been involved with that political speech, went into Girvetz Hall and may or may not have damaged the HVAC unit. With that amount of information, I don’t know how they could ever get to probable cause for a search warrant.”

UCSB professor Rafael Sandoval from the Chicano Studies Department attended Friday’s hearing to hear the judge’s decision. Sandoval said he had been paying close attention to what was going on with the encampment. 

“I’m glad to see the warrant quashed. It’s important for privacy,” Sandoval said. “Trying to stop a genocide is the real issue.”

In June, more than a month after UC Santa Barbara students set up a pro-Palestine encampment known as the UCSB Liberated Zone, members of a group known as Say Genocide occupied and barricaded themselves inside Girvetz Hall on campus.

After two days, police responded to clear the building of protesters, but the group was gone by the time they arrived and no students were arrested.

During the occupation, protesters maintained control of the building by securing and blocking doors with zip ties, ropes and metal clamps, and stacked chairs in entryways. They also used broken concrete blocks, newspaper-stuffed fake bodies and red paint to depict war-torn scenes, according to court records. 

Court records also claim that the protesters “burglarized” a secured HVAC mechanical room, which they allegedly used to access the rooftop and monitor activity from above. The total cost of damage was $40,000, according to court records.