This week, Ian Struckhoff learned he won’t be prosecuted for standing on the Dartmouth Green during a peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration one night last month.

Forgive Struckhoff, 45, if he doesn’t feel like celebrating. The criminal trespass charge was bogus from the beginning.

Struckhoff and the 88 others hauled away in handcuffs by police, many of them in riot gear, on May 1 didn’t do anything wrong.

I’m sure Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock and her fawning followers would disagree. Beilock seems to think that people who choose to exercise their constitutional rights in a nonviolent manner are somehow breaking the law by hanging around a patch of grass that’s open to the public at any other time.

Hanover police and New Hampshire State Police were only too willing to carry out Beilock’s get-off-my-lawn edict only to watch her sell them out when a sizable portion of the community questioned why she had turned cops loose on her own students and faculty.

A Dartmouth spokeswoman told me recently the college was “working hard to ensure the consideration of a full range of options for all arrested Dartmouth community members, including options that will ensure there is no charge on their record.”

The notion that Hanover police prosecutor Mariana Pastore did the 28 people that she opted not to file charges against this week a big favor is pure PR spin.

In Struckhoff’s case, Pastore, a prosecutor for 10 years, must have known most judges would have laughed her out of their courtroom.

Struckhoff didn’t arrive on the Green until after 11 p.m. He wasn’t present when police, per Beilock’s instructions, announced that everyone must leave or face the threat of arrest.

Struckhoff grew up in Hanover. His father, Gene, was a skilled Upper Valley criminal defense attorney who is now retired. Ian is owner and operator of The Fourth Place, a game and comic book store that offers free events to members of the “Geek Culture” in downtown Hanover.

After closing his shop on May 1, Struckhoff wandered over to the Green. “I heard things were going on and I wanted to check it out,” he said.

When we talked on Thursday, Struckhoff told me he was standing away from the main crowd, estimated at more than 300 people.

When a cop in military-style clothing ordered him to move, Struckhoff balked. “I wasn’t being confrontational,” he said. “I was just asking why (police) were there and trying to figure out what was going on. I didn’t understand how Dartmouth gets its own militarized police force.”

Struckhoff is relieved that he no longer faces the threat of a $1,200 fine, the maximum allowed for a misdemeanor. He still hasn’t heard, however, when his bail conditions that college officials dictated to authorities will be lifted.

He’s not so much concerned about once again being permitted to stroll across the Green, although that would be nice. More importantly, he’d like to be able to take out his trash at night.

“My staff has to take out the trash because I’m not allowed on Dartmouth property,” he said, referring to the alleyway where his store’s dumpster is located.

While Struckhoff and 27 others won’t have to appear in a court, Pastore has charged 35 people with a so-called violation. It’s a level below a misdemeanor — the charge listed on the paperwork that arrestees received when finally released from police custody the night of the demonstration.

Violations are treated much like many traffic tickets. Defendants can opt to plead guilty or no contest, agreeing to pay a fine, plus court fees, without fear of getting a criminal record.

I’ve heard some defendants plan to plead not guilty, wanting a chance to argue their cases before a judge. Win or lose, they too avoid a criminal record.

Now we all wait with bated breath to find out what Pastore plans to do about the 24 remaining people, including Dartmouth history professor Annelise Orleck, who are scheduled for arraignment on Aug. 5. (Charges against two Dartmouth student journalists were dropped after it was pointed out to Pastore and Beilock that they were on the Green, just doing their jobs for the college’s daily student paper.)

Why Pastore is pursuing violations against anyone is beyond me. She didn’t respond to my request for comment.

I guess Pastore figures she has to keep up New Hampshire’s reputation as a tough-on-crime state, even when bringing in dozens of armed officers, including a “special operations unit” consisting of cops from around the state, amounted to a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.

If towns were smart, they’d bill Hanover for the overtime pay their officers racked up. Their own taxpayers shouldn’t be stuck with the tab.

I presume Dartmouth is covering some of the night’s costs. The college should at least pay for the gas it took to drive arrestees to New Hampshire police stations and the Grafton County jail in North Haverhill for processing. But maybe Beilock and Co. figure that giving cops the keys to Dartmouth Outing Club vans to transport their quarry sufficed.

Pastore continues to play hardball with Andrew Tefft, the only defendant charged with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor that carries possible jail time. He also faces a violation for criminal trespass.

Like Struckhoff, Tefft was a latecomer to the Green. Tefft, a Hanover High graduate, happened to be in town, visiting his elderly father on the night that Beilock imposed her version of martial law.

Tefft, 45, was a bystander who drew the attention of a Canaan police officer with a do-as-I-say-or-else attitude.

I happened to be nearby when Tefft was face-down on the ground with a Canaan cop lording over him.

A few days later, I asked Canaan Police Chief Ryan Porter for body-camera footage shot by his officers during their encounter with Tefft. Under the state’s right-to-know law, I also asked for the arrest reports that Canaan officers had written.

Porter turned over reports and videos in a timely fashion — unlike Hanover town officials who apparently think the state’s right-to-know law doesn’t apply to them.

In December, I asked for police reports that Hanover cops had written after arresting two Dartmouth student activists for refusing to leave a tent on the lawn outside Beilock’s office in October.

At taxpayers’ expense, Hanover officials continue to fight the release of the reports in Grafton County Superior Court. No matter that a judge ruled three weeks ago that the officers’ accounts are public information.

It’s probably wishful thinking, but I hope the two students arrested in October and the 89 people taken into police custody on the Green last month don’t let the matter drop.

Regardless of what happens with the cases, police and Dartmouth need to be held accountable. One of the few ways is by defendants filing federal lawsuits, arguing the arrests violated their civil rights.

If nothing else, it could force Beilock to come clean about why she was so eager to invite police onto campus — not once but twice. On a witness stand, Beilock couldn’t hide behind her army of flacks who choreograph her public appearances and polish her pabulum.

While she’s at it, she could tell us why Struckhoff isn’t allowed to take out his trash.

Jim Kenyon can be reached at jkenyon@vnews.com.