Drew Miller and Matt Denner have been through a lot together.

Both served last year on the Government of the Student Body, and often times, they found themselves on the same side, such as in their struggle to bring the Public Interest Research Group to campus. When Miller, now a member of the Iowa State Daily editorial board, ran for GSB president last year, Denner was in attendance at Miller’s fund-raising date auction.

They even arrived at Campustown together, in Denner’s car, the night before the April 18 riot.

So it makes some sense that, as the evening ended and Denner found himself being placed under arrest for allegedly refusing to leave the area after getting direct orders to do so from Ames Police Sergeant Mark Wheeler, Miller, too, was on his way to jail before long. Charged originally with interference of official acts, Miller was arrested after he began to argue with Wheeler as the officer took Denner into custody, reportedly attempting to help his friend.

But although charges against Denner were dismissed in late June after Story County attorneys decided that they did not have enough evidence to convict him, the outcome of Miller’s trial was less charitable.

A judgment announced Monday by Story County District Associate Court Judge Thomas Hronek found Miller guilty of an amended charge of failure to disperse and ordered him to pay a total of $407 for his argument with Wheeler.

But if Denner and Miller were at the same place at the same time, and both had the same amount of evidence against them, why was Denner’s case dismissed, while Miller is now guilty of a simple misdemeanor?

Chalk it up to hired help, Miller said. While Denner went out and found an attorney who punched holes in the prosecution’s case, Miller had instead relied on the virtues of the justice system to clear his name.

At the last minute, Miller, realizing that having some legal help couldn’t hurt, contacted Michael Levine of Iowa State’s student legal services, who agreed to represent Miller in court. But despite efforts to argue against a faulty arrest location in Wheeler’s affidavit and the semantics of the charge against him, Miller said Levine didn’t have time to prepare a thorough case.

“It bothers me because the main difference between our cases is [Denner] hired a lawyer and I didn’t,” said Miller. “The end result is, I paid less, but now I have a conviction on my record and he doesn’t.”

Denner, though, said he hadn’t simply gotten away free.

“Although Drew was convicted and sentenced, and my charges were dismissed, I wouldn’t say that I got off easy,” said Denner of the two cases. “I still had to spend $1,000 in legal bills to get the prosecution to realize they had no case.”

Denner, still serving as a GSB senator, said that although there were other differences between his case and Miller’s, he didn’t believe Miller deserved the fine he was given, nor does he believe him to be guilty of the charge.

Miller said although the prosecution in his case had made a point of asking the judge to set an example with the conviction, he actually got off light compared to some. Ryan Hanks, senior in finance, who was also charged with failure to disperse, received the state’s maximum fine of $667. Miller’s is one of the last misdemeanor cases from the riot to be resolved. But Miller continues setting a different sort of example, serving on the Task Force on Assuring Successful Veishea and Other Student/Community Celebrations, a group charged with resurrecting the tarnished festival. And he said he has a good feeling about the progress the group is making.

“I think it’s going really well,” he said. “Given the circumstances, I think it’s fair to say the task force has an even wider array of opinions on it.

“Until this month the task force didn’t have an official Veishea convict on it.”