http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41882-2002Jul21.html Even before the big dust-up at the Tipper Gore appearance, Ben Wetmore was a gadfly of some notoriety at American University. The poli-sci major from Texas had elbowed his way into the ranks of student government but ended up getting impeached after a dispute with fellow legislators. Then he started a Web journal devoted to criticizing and lampooning campus leaders -- particularly President Benjamin Ladner, whose stately home and car Wetmore took to photographing and posting on his site as evidence of what he saw as administrative extravagance. "He's kind of like a Matt Drudge, but more immature," a fellow student politician said of Wetmore. Wetmore had a pretty shaky relationship with the administration by April 8, when the former vice president's wife went to speak at the campus. Wetmore brought his video camera, suspicious that Gore was drawing a large fee and reasoning that "there should at least be a record of her being here," he said. Midway through her speech, campus police officers approached Wetmore and demanded that he hand over the tape. After a scuffle, he was arrested and sent to a campus disciplinary panel, which placed him on probation and removed him from his elected office as dorm president. Among the charges: theft of Gore's intellectual property by videotaping her speech. The case has outraged free speech watchdogs and civil libertarians, who say the university's claim is a flimsy attempt to stifle Wetmore's journalistic freedom. They say campus officials singled out Wetmore for excessive enforcement and punishment, and denied him a fair hearing, because of his political views. "The idea that a student videotaping a public event would be taken outside, pinned to the ground and handcuffed, [then] be accused of an intellectual property violation is shocking," said Greg C. Luckianoff, a staff member with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based advocacy group that has hired a lawyer for Wetmore. "This was just plain thuggishness." American University officials say that they were protecting Gore's rights while preserving order in the auditorium and that Wetmore escalated the situation by refusing to comply with campus police. "We have our conduct code, and we expect students to adhere to it," Dean of Students Faith C. Leonard said. "If there are violations, they will be adjudicated by an impartial hearing body." Wetmore's supporters say the school's actions are part of a trend of colleges using restrictive discipline to silence critics. This spring at West Virginia University, administrators attempted to corral protests in designated "free speech zones." At the University of California at San Diego, administrators briefly charged student journalists with "disruption" for taking photos at a public meeting. The debate echoes the political correctness battles of the 1980s and 1990s, when campus administrators tried to ban hate speech and some conservatives complained of an academic climate that shouted down their voices. The Wetmore case, though, might be driven less by ideology than by something noted by another of his supporters: "He's annoying." Wetmore said his interest in Gore's speech, which included a presentation of her published photos, was prompted by a rumor that the campus was paying her tens of thousands of dollars. College sources would not disclose the fee, although they say it was much less. "If we're going to spend so much to have her talk, let's tape it so that people who aren't there can see it," Wetmore said last week. At Gore's speech, he sat in the bleachers toward the back of Bender Arena. An organizer announced at the start that flash photography was prohibited but said nothing about videotaping, so Wetmore set the camera on his lap and started it rolling. Campus officials were disturbed when they spotted the camera -- Gore's contract with the university stipulated that her presentation could not be recorded. According to documents from Wetmore's disciplinary hearing, an officer was sent to tell Wetmore to stop taping and go to the lobby. Wetmore refused. Another officer joined them, but Wetmore refused to leave or relinquish his tape. The confrontation started to distract the audience, according to university documents. A third officer arrived, and Wetmore agreed to go to the lobby. But when he refused to hand over the tape, a scuffle erupted. Wetmore says he was pushed against a wall, threatened with Mace, pushed to the floor and handcuffed. After about an hour at the campus public safety office, he was released -- without his tape, which the university holds. Among the many campus charges Wetmore faced -- disorderly conduct, failure to comply with officers and others -- he and his supporters are most outraged by the charge of theft. "Videotaping a public event is not theft," said Thor Halvorssen, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Lawyers unconnected to the case say it's a blurry area. Jonathan Band, an intellectual property expert in the District, says technically, Gore's speech was comparable to a theatrical production. "If he's taping it, he's infringing and copying her public performance." Still, he said, Wetmore probably would have a strong defense, especially because the speech was by a political figure -- Gore had abandoned a possible Senate run weeks before -- that Wetmore was videotaping for First Amendment, not commercial, purposes. "It is a very technical charge to assert as the basis of campus punishment," said First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams. "A lawyer can make a case that her copyright rights were violated, but it is a very unattractive case." Gore declined to comment on the issue. "This is clearly a matter between the university and the student," a staff member said. Wetmore and his supporters also claim that he was denied due process by the campus disciplinary board. The three-person panel that heard his case included a student government rival, Wetmore was required to testify against himself and he was allowed no formal appeal beyond a review by the dean of students. But other lawyers say that campus judicial panels -- with the power, at most, to throw someone out of school -- are not criminal courts and that due process does not apply. Many on campus disagree with the handling of the case, which leaves Wetmore on probation, at risk of being expelled. Evan Wagner, a student journalist, resigned from the university's Conduct Council in protest. "You're talking about someone who doesn't really do any damage, who is about to be kicked out of school," he said.