Published by The Free Press on 4/26/2025 The Columbia University janitors who were held hostage during the violent takeover of a campus building last spring are suing their alleged captors for battery, assault, and conspiracy to violate their civil rights, according to a copy of the suit reviewed exclusively by The Free Press. The lawsuit was filed in federal court on Friday evening by Torridon Law and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of Columbia janitors Mario Torres and Lester Wilson. It alleges that over 40 Columbia students and “outside agitators,” some but not all of whom were arrested by police following the takeover of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall last April 29, “terrorized” both Torres and Wilson “into the early morning of April 30th, assaulted and battered them, held them against their will, and derided them as ‘Jew-lovers’ and ‘Zionists.’ ” The occupation of Hamilton Hall occurred almost exactly a year ago, and both Torres and Lester say they have been struggling to cope ever since. The lawsuit states both men suffered physical injuries the night of the occupation, and that they have also been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that has required ongoing medical care. Neither has been able to return to work, and are instead “subsisting on interim Workers Compensation payments” which are “inadequate” to pay for their basic needs and medical bills, according to the suit. “Mario and Lester are decent, honest, hardworking men who have been through hell. None of this ever should have happened,” said Tara Helfman, one of the Torridon lawyers on the case. The lawsuit describes the protesters, the majority of whom “donned masks and hoods to conceal their identities,” as “reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan.” It claims they “are part of a broad pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic network of organizations, groups, and cells that are connected through a largely untraceable underground communications system. They promote and resort to violent and illegal tactics, and are motivated by invidious discrimination against Jews and supporters of Jews.” The Brandeis Center also filed a federal lawsuit late Friday on behalf of two students, a professor, and a rabbi at the University of California, Los Angeles, alleging that several groups, including National Students for Justice in Palestine, Faculty for Justice in Palestine Network, American Muslims for Palestine, and Westchester People’s Action Coalition, engaged in “a coordinated campaign of egregious acts of racial exclusion, intimidation, and assault” to “intimidate Jewish students, faculty, and staff.” The “occupiers” named in Torres and Wilson’s lawsuit include leaders of Columbia’s most vocal anti-Israel groups like the Columbia University Apartheid Divest Coalition, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace. Other defendants are people not associated with the university who were allegedly involved in the building takeover, including James Carlson, described in a New York Post story as a “longtime anarchist” and as the son of millionaires, and Lisa Fithian, a professional protest trainer and “lifelong agitator.” Also named in the suit is The People’s Forum, a far-left activist group responsible for organizing many of the anti-Israel protests at Columbia and across New York City. Over 40 protesters, including Carlson, were arrested and charged with trespassing in the days after the Hamilton Hall occupation. But Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office dropped the charges, claiming the charges would have been “extremely difficult” to prove because the protesters wore masks and covered security cameras. While Torres and Wilson are not Jewish, the lawsuit alleges that antisemitism played a central role in the harm inflicted upon the janitors, who the protesters knew were likely to be in the building that night. The lawsuit states that “the Occupiers were motivated by perceptions that Mr. Torres and Mr. Wilson supported Jews and presented potential obstacles to the execution of their plot to take over and occupy Hamilton Hall.” The lawsuit provides unprecedented insight into how the events of that night unfolded, including descriptions of how outside groups were involved in both the planning and execution of the building’s occupation. The night of April 29, both Torres and Wilson were working the night shift as “heavy cleaners” inside Hamilton Hall, which is located in the center of Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus. Just past midnight, they heard loud shouts and then saw masked and hooded protesters armed with “rope, zip ties, and crow bars” breaking into the building and shattering windows, according to the suit. Both Torres and Wilson were working on the building’s third floor, but they were separated and unable to find each other during the chaos. The suit states that masked rioters approached Torres and demanded he leave. They then “pressed a roll of cash into his hand and said, ‘This is bigger than you.’ ” After Torres initially refused to leave, the suit says, he noticed the rioters had become “more violent and threatening,” so he “demanded that they let him out of the building.” At this point, the protesters wouldn’t let him out, saying, “It’s over” and “It’s too late.” Later, they chastised him for being a “Jew-lover” and a “Zionist,” according to the suit. The suit alleges that a man later identified as Carlson confronted Torres and began “shoving” him and “standing in his way,” and then threatened him, saying: “I’m going to get 20 guys up here to fuck you up.” A photo of Torres involved in a physical altercation with Carlson, captured by a freelance photographer who had accompanied the mob of protesters, later went viral on social media. Torres previously told The Free Press in an exclusive interview that he sustained injuries to his hand. “We don’t expect to go to work and get swarmed by an angry mob with rope and duct tape and masks and gloves,” he said at the time. “I was freaking out. At that point, I’m thinking about my family. How was I gonna get out? Through the window?” Wilson was cleaning a bathroom when he “heard a commotion in the hallway,” and then stepped out to find “two or three mashed individuals moving chairs” which would later be used to barricade doors. The suit states after Wilson refused to leave the building, and instead demand the protesters leave instead, “masked individuals began shoving him and ramming furniture into him.” When both men attempted to flee the building, they found all of the exits had been barricaded with heavy furniture including tables and vending machines, and had been locked shut using zip ties and bike chains, according to the lawsuit. As the night unfolded, the suit states, both men feared for their lives. In the days after the break-in, Wilson told The Free Press he thought he “could have been killed in there.” The lawsuit states both men also noticed that the break-in was “highly coordinated.” They observed people with “cases of water and food,” “rolled-up mattresses,” and “tape and rope.” In the hours before the takeover of the building, The People’s Forum held a “volunteer meeting” at its Manhattan headquarters where “a group of co-conspirators . . . solidified and set into motion their coordinated plan to seize Hamilton Hall,” according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges this is also where protesters “produced and distributed hand-drawn maps and diagrams of Hamilton Hall,” and that some of the defendants bought “rope, zip ties, bike locks, food and water, cots, and other supplies.” These supplies, the lawsuit alleges, were purchased with money from The Westchester People’s Action Coalition, which reportedly funds the National Students for Justice in Palestine. At 11:27 pm, The People’s Forum posted on X, calling on its supporters to “MOBILIZE TO COLUMBIA NOW!” One hour later, the rioters broke into the building. The rioters’ tactics, according to the suit, were based on a how-to guide titled “Palestine Action: The Underground Manual,” which instructs protesters to do “an effective reconnaissance” of the “target” location, including assessing if and where there may be security guards, how far away the nearest police station is, how many “access points” a building has, and how the location’s alarm system works. The manual also recommends different types of “actions” protesters can take, including breaking into buildings and “smashing windows.” Fithian, the professional protester trainer, stayed outside during the occupation, but according to the suit, “she had a material role in coaching, training, and directing the rioters on how to storm and seize Hamilton Hall and how to bar the doors so that no one could enter or leave, based on her years of experience agitating and protesting.” In the past, Fithian has reportedly earned up to $300 per day training activist groups on demonstration and disruption strategies. The professors and students in the UCLA case are suing under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, alleging that these anti-Israel groups “plotted, coordinated, and executed a common plan to deprive Plaintiffs and other Jews at UCLA of their rights” and to “subject Plaintiffs to racial intimidation and violence and to stir up race hatred at UCLA.” The lawsuit specifically points to the encampment and so-called “autonomous zone” set up at UCLA as “terroristic tactics, which have proven sadly effective in rendering campus a hostile environment for Jews.” While the Brandeis Center has previously sued universities such as Harvard and University of California, Berkeley for their alleged failures to combat antisemitism, these lawsuits represent the first time the center is going directly after individuals and groups alleged to be behind the rise in antisemitic and violent protests, according to Ken Marcus, founder of the Brandeis Center. “Too often, the mainstream media creates a false narrative about innocent political protesters who are simply trying to advance a peace agenda, and who are getting punished, when in fact, what we’re seeing is organized activity by groups who support the terrorist agenda of Hamas and who are engaged in outright violence,” Marcus said. “These cases demonstrate that the campaign against campus antisemitism isn’t about speech and free expression, but rather an effort to curtail the extreme violence that is unleashed at some of our most prestigious institutions when administrators look the other way.”