Six fans sentenced in rushing of Faurot

Six of the 21 people charged with second-degree trespassing for illegally entering Faurot Field after the Oct. 22 MU-Nebraska football game were sentenced Thursday in municipal court to fines of $250 or 10 hours of community service plus $22.50 in court costs.

City prosecutor Rose Wibbenmeyer reduced the original charge of first-degree trespassing to second-degree, thereby reducing the offense from a misdemeanor to an infraction. She could not be reached for comment.

MU police arrested the fans for violating a city ordinance that defines first-degree trespassing as knowingly entering or remaining unlawfully “in a building or inhabitable structure or upon real property.”

Five of those sentenced on Thursday — A.J. Bayatpour, 19; Anne Harper, 21; Bryant Loy, 19; Kourtney Mitchell, 19; and Tyler Ramsey, 18 — are MU students. Terry Herman, 20, of St. Peters is not an MU student.

Fifteen of those arrested after fans swarmed the field in a post-game celebration were MU students. Those arrested were among hundreds of MU football fans who entered the field after the Tigers defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 41-24.

The goal posts were torn down and carried to Harpo’s, a restaurant on Tenth Street, where they were sawed into souvenir pieces.

Upon pleading guilty to trespassing, Bayatpour told the court: “The only thing I can say about myself is I wasn’t being destructive in any manner. I was just running around on the field.”

Harper said in court that a mob of fans around her forced her to enter the field.

“I was sitting in the front row,” she said. “If I hadn’t gone onto the field, I would’ve been hurt.”

Both Herman and Loy said they “got caught up in the moment.”

MU student Michael Poland, 20, of Ellisville appeared in court Nov. 22 and was fined $77.50 plus court costs for rushing the field. Ashley Young, 19, of Kansas City, also an MU student, contacted the court before her assigned court date on Thursday and was fined $92.50 plus court costs.

The rest of those charged either requested a continuance to allow time to consult an attorney or failed to appear for their initial court appearance on Thursday.