Berkeley People's Park tree-sitter is convicted BERKELEY

A veteran East Bay protester was convicted Thursday of trespassing in a cedar tree in People's Park in Berkeley.

Matthew "Midnight Matt" Dodt, 55, of Oakland said he didn't recognize UC Berkeley's claim that it owns the space when he began living on platforms in the tree in November 2010.

He resisted efforts to get him to come down. But on Jan. 27, 2011, he stabbed a man who had climbed the tree to talk to him, causing minor injuries, authorities said.

By the next morning, Dodt had descended, after police brought in ladders and a cherry picker with the intent of arresting him, said Alameda County prosecutor Peter McGuiness.

He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and spent more than two months in jail, but that charge was eventually dropped.

Dodt was convicted Thursday after a three-day trial of illegal lodging and pointing a laser at a police officer, both misdemeanors. Superior Court Judge Armando Cuellar gave him a 60-day suspended sentence and placed him on three years of probation.

Defense attorney Zadik Shapiro said Dodt had mounted his People's Park protest because he believed the space belonged to the Ohlone Indians, and because he was angry about police treatment of the homeless.

Shapiro said Dodt should have been left alone, but added that the university was "very touchy" about tree-sitting because of the long Memorial Stadium protest.