Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald said Tuesday he was absolutely certain law enforcement officials had gotten the right man when they arrested Eric Osterholm.

Osterholm, who was arrested April 18 during the Veishea riot, said that he’d simply been present at the riot and hadn’t engaged in any criminal activity other than failing to leave when ordered to by police officers.

Osterholm also said his subsequent expulsion from Iowa State was unjust.

“I was punished because I was there,” he said in an article in the Des Moines Sunday Register.

Osterholm was one of four students who were either expelled or suspended by Iowa State after the riot, which caused about $100,000 in damage in the Campustown area.

Fitzgerald and other Story County officials said differently. Fitzgerald said he distinctly remembers that Osterholm, not once but several times, was seen hurling objects at officers sent in to disperse the rioting crowd not once, but several times.

Fitzgerald said there is also a video of Osterholm’s behavior, which he said was sent to the ISU judiciary committee for review when deciding what, if any, punishment the school should impose.

Osterholm said Tuesday that he saw the video at his student judicial hearing, but said it only depicted him standing among the crowd. He said charges that he’d thrown anything at police officers were untrue.

“As far as I know, I wasn’t throwing anything at police officers,” Osterholm said. “If they had that kind of evidence, I don’t know why they didn’t go to trial with it.”

Twice, Fitzgerald said, he witnessed Osterholm emerge from a crowd of people and throw objects at police. A disorderly conduct complaint filed by Story County Capt. Gary Foster corroborates that account. According to the complaint, Osterholm was inciting a crowd of people at the corner of Lincoln Way and Welch Avenue, shouting obscenities at officers and taunting them.

Foster also wrote in the complaint that Osterholm broke off a street sign and hurled it at the officers, a charge Osterholm calls “ridiculous.”

Fitzgerald, who said he and his deputies were being bombarded by numerous objects at the time, said he informed a sergeant to wait for Osterholm to emerge again to hurl objects and then to close in on him.

The deputies descended upon a surprised Osterholm, Fitzgerald said, and took him down as he struggled against them.

“This was a several-hours, ongoing experience,” Fitzgerald said. “He wasn’t the only one who was throwing things, but he was the one we noticed.”

Osterholm denies these charges, saying that he, while intoxicated, had simply been in the area in the earliest stages of the riot.

“The poorest decision I made that night was not leaving,” he said.

Osterholm was charged with interference with official acts and disorderly conduct (fighting or violent behavior). He pleaded guilty to both charges in August. Another charge added later, assaulting a peace officer, was dropped.

Pete Englin, dean of students, said Tuesday that he would not comment on the video or any other specifics about Osterholm’s case, because the appeal process had not yet been completed.