California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control agents arrested a 21-year-old Pomona College student on campus Thursday night, drawing a crowd of students who questioned the officers’ actions. The student was not holding an alcoholic beverage, and he later received a citation for battery of a peace officer. Multiple eyewitnesses disputed the allegation, according to reporting by The Student Life.
The Student Life’s account places the incident outside Clark V Residence Hall on Pomona’s Claremont campus. The outlet reported that agents dragged the student onto North College Way between 10:14 and 10:17 p.m.; four officers picked him up and carried him into a vehicle at 10:19 p.m. The account is based on witness reporting and video, and the disputed citation has not been independently resolved here. The Student Life’s report also raised questions about why state alcohol agents were on campus and how the college and local agencies responded.
A Confrontation That Started With a Beer Nobody Was Holding
The Student Life reported that the encounter began when four students walking from Smiley Hall toward Clark V met officers who said they were looking for underage drinking. Two plainclothes officers approached a student identified in the report as Student A, who was holding a beer and said they were of legal drinking age but did not have identification with them.
Student A later said officers grabbed their arms and showed badges only several minutes into the encounter. Witness Zena Almeida-Warwin told The Student Life that students in the gathering asked the officers to identify themselves and explain why they were holding students. The outlet reported that two students pried the officers’ hands away from Student A before the student who was later detained arrived.
Charges Changed Mid-Encounter, Witnesses Say
The Student Life reported that officers initially accused the eventually detained student of underage drinking, although he was 21 and was not holding an alcoholic beverage. Multiple students told the outlet that the officers’ stated grounds shifted during the encounter, from drinking without identification to an allegation of battery of an officer. The outlet identified one officer, by her badge, as Esmeralda Reynoso, a supervising agent in charge and a peace officer empowered to enforce alcohol laws and other California penal statutes. It also reported that officers did not show badges to the detained student or read him Miranda rights.
The student was taken to the Claremont police station at 10:31 p.m. Friends, including student Maelor-Jones, later drove him back to campus, where he arrived by 11:14 p.m., The Student Life reported. Claremont police told the outlet they had not detained anyone on Claremont college campuses that night; the arresting agency was ABC, not local police.
Campus Safety Response and Who Called Whom
A student named Sanja Greenawalt called Pomona College Campus Safety at 10:18 p.m., and an officer arrived by around 10:23 p.m., telling students to move from the street to the sidewalk. According to multiple students cited in the reporting, that officer did not intervene with either ABC or Claremont police as the detained student was put into the vehicle. Another student, Renee Tian, said Campus Safety told students that ABC had every legal right to be present.
Josh Eisenberg, Pomona's associate dean of students and dean of campus life, and Pharalyn Robinson, the administrator on call that night, both said they were unaware of ABC's presence on campus before they arrived at the scene, per student accounts relayed to the outlet. An anonymous eyewitness speculated that administrators believed the fire department had called in alcohol enforcement because of concerns about underage drinking and overdose calls, and multiple sources cited administrators pointing to alleged concerns about rising alcohol-abuse reports at the Claremont Colleges — though that remains attributed speculation rather than a confirmed explanation.
Pomona Confirms It Didn't Call Police — So Who Did?
A Pomona College spokesperson said neither the college nor Campus Safety contacted law enforcement about the incident. Instead, according to an email from the Associated Students of Pomona College on Friday, it was the Los Angeles County Fire Department that invited ABC onto campus. The reporting does not establish who at the fire department made that invitation or why.
The fire department declined to comment to the outlet and directed reporters to file a public records request, while ABC did not answer a phone call placed during weekend hours. The Claremont Colleges Services spokesperson Laura Muna-Landa said she could not provide comment by deadline and instead directed the outlet to Pomona's statement.
Administrators and Student Government Respond
Pomona College said student affairs leadership immediately supported the detained student and other students who had gathered on campus, and that leadership reached out to the student directly while contacting others to offer support and resources, according to a spokesperson's statement. Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Avis Hinkson and the Associated Students of Pomona College each released separate statements on the incident at around 3:30 p.m. Friday. Tracy Arwari, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students for academic and personal success, is also named in the college's response structure, per the outlet's reporting.
ASPC's statement warned that ABC and Claremont police would likely be present across the consortium on Halloween night and noted that ABC officers typically work without uniforms, though they may wear a police vest and travel in unmarked vehicles. Scripps Associated Students emailed the Scripps community about the incident and reshared ASPC's statement close to 5 p.m. Friday.
What's Disputed, and What California Law Says About ABC Agents
Multiple eyewitnesses contested the validity of the battery-of-a-peace-officer citation, and the reporting notes those disputes without resolving which version of events is accurate. California's Alcoholic Beverage Control agency describes its agents as fully sworn peace officers who primarily work in plain clothes investigating violations of the state's alcohol laws. Separately, state law under the California Penal Code specifies that a person meeting the legal standards for a peace officer qualifies as one, and that no one outside those designated categories holds that status.
Pomona’s Clery reporting page lists arrests or disciplinary referrals for drug abuse and liquor- or weapons-law violations among reportable categories. Those categories describe what is reported; they do not, by themselves, identify the agency involved in a particular arrest or establish that ABC made this arrest.
Other gatherings at Clark V have drawn responses from campus or local authorities. The Student Life reported that seniors held a separate gathering in the courtyard around 11 p.m. on May 17, with alcohol and a speaker: The Student Life’s account. During 2026 graduation weekend, approximately 70–80 students were later at the Frary Dining Hall steps, and Campus Safety and a Residence Life Coordinator intervened, according to The Student Life. That report said Campus Safety pursued students across multiple Claremont campuses for more than a mile, a Claremont Police Department squad car eventually arrived, and CPD officers threatened arrest unless the students left; the students then left.
