A campus argument in Ann Arbor has become a criminal case. Washtenaw County prosecutors have authorised three charges against University of Michigan student Temulun Togochog over a confrontation at a free-speech event on Sunday, November 1, in which, police say, officers themselves watched a student push a visiting Jewish commentator to the ground. The charges — one felony count of assaulting, resisting or obstructing a police officer, and two counts of assault or assault and battery — were authorised on Tuesday, November 3, a day after investigators submitted the case for review. Togochog has not been arraigned, no court date has been set, and the charges are allegations only: she is presumed innocent, has entered no plea, and nothing in the case has been tested in court. A felony warrant is to be issued by the court, and a hearing date will be set once she is arraigned.
Source: University Herald, University of Michigan Student Faces Charges (Nov. 4, 2026)
What happened on the Diag
The confrontation unfolded at about 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, on the Diag, the central gathering ground of the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus, during a public discussion organised by Liberty Under Fire USA on religion, politics and free speech. The speakers were conservative commentators Cam Higby and Joe Redden and Jewish content creator Lizzy Benichou, who is not affiliated with the university, and the topics included Islam, Iran and Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. University police had responded to the area over a noise complaint and because, they said, the group did not have permission or a permit to hold the event on campus — and the physical confrontation, police said, occurred while members of the organisation were packing up to leave.
Video shared on social media, described in detail by the University Herald, shows a woman identified as Togochog approaching the commentators' table and arguing with Redden about Islam, then appearing to swing or slap toward him with her phone; the available video does not clearly establish whether she struck him, Redden told responding officers he had been hit, and she denied hitting him and accused the commentators of being anti-Muslim. Benichou, standing nearby, then questioned the woman about how she would be treated in Iran based on the way she was dressed. The exchange turned physical: footage appears to show the woman pushing Benichou to the ground and jumping on her before another person stepped in and pulled her away, and attempting to move toward Benichou again before officers took control. University of Michigan police spokesperson Melissa Overton, quoted by The Detroit News, said officers witnessed a student push a woman to the ground. During the arrest, according to the reports, the student allegedly resisted officers and shouted threats at Benichou.
The victim, the speakers and the injuries reported
Benichou received medical treatment after the incident and was later released, university police confirmed; the reports give no fuller official account of her injuries. Her manager, Taylor Sharp — who is also a founder of the organising group — told MEAWW she injured her lower back when she struck the ground during the altercation and that she intended to press charges; Benichou herself said she intended to pursue criminal charges to the fullest extent of the law. The student was taken into custody at the scene, processed and released, Overton said, and the incident was forwarded to the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office for review. Campus police did not initially name the student: Overton explained the department does not release names until an individual is arraigned. It was the prosecutor's office that later identified Togochog as the person facing the authorised charges.
The charges prosecutors authorised
Alyssa Fountain, an administrative assistant at the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office, told the Jewish News Syndicate the case was submitted for review on Monday, November 2, and that the office had acted on it the next day. 'We thoroughly reviewed the evidence that was submitted to us,' Fountain said. The authorised charges are one count of assaulting, resisting or obstructing an officer — the felony count, covering the alleged conduct toward the officers who made the arrest — and two counts of assault or assault and battery. Fountain said a felony warrant would be issued by the court, that no court date had been scheduled because Togochog had not yet been arraigned, and that a date would be set once she is arraigned — the hearing at which a defendant is formally told the charges and asked to enter a plea, and at which a judge can set bond conditions.
Source: MEAWW, Michigan student faces felony charge (Nov. 3, 2026)
Everything in this case remains an allegation. Togochog has not been arraigned, has entered no plea and has not been tried; the video accounts above are descriptions of footage by the outlets cited, not court findings. Two limits of the current record are worth stating plainly. First, the charges prosecutors authorised do not include an ethnic-intimidation or hate-crime count — the warrant, as authorised, covers assault on an officer and assault and battery only. Second, claims circulating online about the student's background, and an organiser's claim that university officials asked for the footage to be taken down, are not findings of any authority: Cam Higby alleged that officials approached the organisers and asked them to remove the recording to shield the student from 'negative blowback,' and MEAWW reported the university has not publicly confirmed or addressed that account.
The university's response
The University of Michigan answered on Monday with a statement defending free expression and condemning the violence. 'Physical violence has no place on our campus,' the university said, adding: 'The university is firmly committed to protecting freedom of speech and expression, and actions that threaten the safety of others or interfere with their right to express their views will not be tolerated.' Asked about the student herself, the university said federal privacy laws prevent it from discussing specific student conduct matters; it has not publicly confirmed whether Togochog remains enrolled, whether she has returned to campus, or whether she faces any separate disciplinary action under campus rules — a process that, if it happens, would run separately from the criminal case. The lack of a permit for the event, police stressed, was a separate matter from the assault investigation officers said they witnessed.
The organisers answered in similar terms. Liberty Under Fire USA — established in May 2026 by Arizona teenager Taylor Sharp, Gianna Carlson and a friend, and set up, Sharp has said, to continue organising campus debates following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — said its gatherings are meant to allow peaceful discussion of faith, ideas and differing beliefs. 'Our events are intended to create a space for peaceful conversations surrounding faith, ideas and differing belief systems,' the group stated. 'We firmly believe that disagreement is a fundamental part of free expression, but it never justifies violence.' It added: 'Political violence has no place on our college campuses or anywhere in America.'
Why this case is being watched beyond Ann Arbor
The case sits at the crossing of three arguments American universities are having at once: how to protect open, sometimes provocative, political speech on a public campus; where lawful protest ends and physical assault begins; and who answers when a speaker who is not part of the university is hurt at an event the university says was never authorised. For Michigan's large student communities — including Punjabi and other South Asian students and families in the Ann Arbor and Detroit metro areas who follow campus-safety news closely — the practical questions are the unanswered ones: whether the university changes how it handles unpermitted speaker events on the Diag, and whether its separate student-conduct process produces any public outcome at all. What the criminal case has established so far is narrower and firmer: a county prosecutor, after reviewing investigators' evidence, has decided the confrontation should be answered in court.
What happens next
The next steps are procedural and fixed. The court is to issue the felony warrant on the three authorised counts. Togochog's arraignment follows, at which she will be formally advised of the charges, asked to enter a plea, and given bond conditions by a judge; only after arraignment will the court set the schedule for further proceedings, according to the prosecutor's office. Prosecutors can in principle amend a complaint if further review of the evidence supports different or additional charges, but nothing in the current record says that is planned, and no ethnic-intimidation count is part of the case as authorised. In parallel, the university has neither announced nor ruled out a separate campus-conduct process. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when the warrant is executed and an arraignment date is set.