White student who taunted Black Lives Matter supporters with a gorilla mask and bananas is cleared of civil rights violations after claiming he was exercising his freedom of speech

• e-mail

An all-white jury of six men and six women found Tristan Rettke, 21, guilty on a misdemeanor count of disrupting a meeting Wednesday night after he used a gorilla mask and bananas to mock Black Lives Matter protesters in 2016

A former Tennessee State University student who used a gorilla mask and bananas to mock Black Lives Matter protesters in 2016 has been cleared of most charges, and may get away with just a $500 penalty.

Tristan Rettke, 21, successfully argued that convicting him on civil rights-related offenses would violate his own First Amendment rights.

An all-white jury of six men and six women found him guilty on one count of misdemeanor disrupting a meeting Wednesday night and recommended he pay a $500 fine.

But the jurors found him not guilty on two counts of civil rights intimidation and one count of disorderly conduct, WCYB reported.

A barefoot Rettke was caught on video donning overalls with his ape mask as he mocked BLM demonstrators for more than 20 minutes on TSU's campus on September 28, 2016.

He was also accused of using racial slurs as he dangled bananas from a rope.

Scroll down for video 

A barefoot Rettke was caught on video donning overalls with his ape mask as he mocked BLM demonstrators for more than 20 minutes at TSU's campus on September 28, 2016, allegedly using racial slurs as he dangled bananas from a rope

Rettke's defense attorney, Patrick Denton, told jurors his client vehemently disagreed with the Black Lives Matter movement, having been raised in a conservative family with relatives who served in the military and law enforcement

During his opening arguments on Monday, Rettke's defense attorney, Patrick Denton, told jurors his client vehemently disagreed with the Black Lives Matter movement, having been raised in a conservative family with relatives who served in the military and law enforcement, according to the Washington Post.

He said after Rettke found out about the planned BLM protest, he asked 4Chan's /pol/ message board users for recommendations on how to troll the anti-racist protesters.

Witnesses from the BLM rally told the court Rettke's racist demonstration made them fearful.

'The thought kept running through my mind, like, am I going to make it home to my mom?”' ETSU student Brook'ale Anderson told the court, according to WCYB. 

But Denton pointed out none of the demonstrators was seen leaving the area during Rettke's display, convincing jurors his client's racist actions hadn't intimidated anyone and were protected by the First Amendment. 

“I’m not going to tell you this wasn’t racism. That would just be disingenuous. We can all just acknowledge there’s a strong racist element to it,' Denton told the court. 

A law enforcement official presents the gorilla mask Rettke wore to the court

Rettke (left) appears in court with his defense attorney Patrick Denton

'But what the Constitution says is that he can express racist views... He's a heckler for that protest and, as much as (the prosecutor) doesn't want to acknowledge, that's speech. It obviously is. We all understand that,' the attorney added.

The ACLU of Tennessee and the state's Foundation for Individual Rights in Education both condemned the charges against Rettke back in 2016.

'While the student in this instance clearly intended to mock and provoke people, from video of the incident he did not appear to be making a targeted threat or to be creating a real fear of bodily harm,' Hedy Weinberg told the Johnson City Press in an October 2016 email. 'Particularly in a public forum space where First Amendment protections are at their height, even this kind of contemptible racist speech is protected by the First Amendment.' 

School officials have declined to say whether the former student dropped out or was expelled less than a month after the incident, citing privacy laws.

Rettke is set to be sentenced at 1pm on August 14.