They got the wrong guy. Member of student youth group gets swept up in arrests on convention floor

by Joie Tyrrell
Newsday
September 4, 2004

In their sweep of protesters from the floor of Madison Square Garden Wednesday, authorities apparently nabbed the wrong person.

Benjamin Traslavina, a 16-year-old Malverne High School student, was on the floor of the Republican National Convention with a student leadership group when he got too close for the Secret Service's comfort to a protest that erupted suddenly.

As editor of the Malverne Mule, Traslavina thought the protest by the AIDS activist group, Act Up would make a good photo for his article on the convention for the student paper and moved in to take a picture.

That's when the Secret Service grabbed him and turned him over to New York police. Benjamin, an honors student who repeatedly told authorities he was not with the protesters, was booked with a felony and held in jail for the night.

"At every step of the way, I told just about everybody that I wasn't part of the protest," Benjamin said, sitting Friday on the front porch of his family's Lynbrook home. "I was frightened when I first got in and extremely frightened when I was informed of the charges."

Now, he is worried that the felony arrest could mar his chances at college. Benjamin, who is going to be a senior this year, is vice president of the Honor Society and would like to attend Columbia University. His family is in the process of hiring a lawyer to fight the charges.

The NYPD and the Republican National Convention press office didn't return calls for comment Friday.

It all started on Wednesday about 11 a.m. Benjamin and other students with the summer election symposia offered by the Junior Statesmen Foundation, a nonpartisan education organization designed to prepare students nationwide for effective leadership in student government, attended the Republican National Convention. They were listening to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card when protesters from Act Up stood up, holding banners and a sign and started to remove their clothes to reveal shirts with a message on them.

Benjamin said he stood up to take a picture from his seat and walked toward them but they had already been dragged away. He sat down and that is when the Secret Service grabbed him and "decided I was part of the protest," he said.

Richard Prosser, executive director of the Junior Statesmen Foundation, was also on the floor at Madison Square Garden when Benjamin was taken away.

"He apparently was identified as someone who was a participant in the demonstration, but from everything we know, it's a total case of mistaken identification," Prosser said. "I didn't see him go, but students saw him. Some of our students and staff said, 'Wasn't that Benjamin taken away with the demonstrators?' Our reaction was that it had to be a case of mistaken identity. We honestly believed it would be resolved and sorted out."

But it wasn't. Even though the Act Up protesters told authorities that Benjamin wasn't part of the group, he was taken away in metal handcuffs. They took his camera and threw away his film. He also had credentials, but those were taken too.

"I was cooperative," he said. "I assumed it would work out and I wouldn't be sent to jail and left overnight."

Prosser said he also told the Secret Service that Benjamin was with his group.

Benjamin was loaded onto a police wagon and taken to Chelsea Piers for processing. He was checked for weapons and his mug shot was taken.

Meanwhile, the student group had contacted Benjamin's mother, Eileen, who was frantically looking for her son. She didn't find out where he was until midnight, when a police officer let Benjamin make a call from his cell phone.

"I couldn't get any information," his mother said. "For 12 hours we didn't know where he was. It was like he vaporized."

Benjamin was then taken to 100 Centre Street, still with the Act Up protesters. There, he was moved from holding cell to holding cell.

By Thursday afternoon, he was allowed to meet with a lawyer from the Lawyer's Guild. He found out the charges against him -- a felony for inciting a riot, a misdemeanor for assault and a violation for disorderly conduct.

Benjamin was arraigned and released without bail to his parents about 4 p.m. Thursday.

His mother is hoping the charges will eventually be dropped.

"This is a kid who wants to be a public servant," she said. "He watches CNN for fun."

Jeff Harris, senior program director for the Junior Statesmen, which is headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., said he thought the action was extreme.

"I can understand the mistake of picking a kid up, but I understand he was detained overnight and arrested and that seems like a little much to me," he said.