The Administrative Board has exonerated three Crimson staffers accused by the Undergraduate Council of improper behavior in an unauthorized May 10 entry into the council office.

The council voted on May 15 to recommend Ad Board action against Crimson reporter Todd F. Braunstein '97 and former council member Anjalee C. Davis for entering the office at 12:30 a.m. and staging a photograph.

Braunstein and Davis were both charged with trespassing and tampering with council property. Davis was also charged with refusal to turn over council property.

The resolution also advocated Ad Board proceedings against Crimson President Marion B. Gammill '95 and Managing Editor Joe Mathews '95 for conspiracy to trespassing.

Braunstein said yesterday that he believed the Ad Board's choice to absolve him was valid.

"Justice has been served," Braunstein said. "I think the Ad Board's decision was a fair one. It's restored my faith in Harvard's judicial system."

Council Vice President Joshua D. Liston '95 said that he trusts the Ad Board's decision.

"We [the U.C.] didn't have the ability to investigate the charges ourselves and so we took it to the Ad Board," Liston said. "We washed our hands of it. If the Ad Board looked at the evidence and decided they were blameless, then that's all right with us."

The Crimson could not reach Davis for comment, although she indicated last month that she wanted her case heard before the Student-FacultyJudiciary Committee. Unlike those of the Ad Board,the committee's hearings are public.

Davis, on leave spring semester, wasinvestigating allegations of impropriety in aCollege-wide referendum she was co-administeringwith the council.

Braunstein came to the office after Davisinformed The Crimson that blank ballots were leftunsecured next to the ballot box, where anyonewith a key to the offices could reach them.

Davis and Braunstein entered the office using akey she had retained from her council tenure. Butshe told Braunstein and Mathews that a councilmember she refused to identify had given her thekey and permission to enter.

When the two entered the office, they foundthat there were, according to Braunstein, "reamsand reams" of blank ballots lying in envelopesnext to the ballot box.

Braunstein called a photographer, whodocumented the scene--but only after Braunsteinparty removed the ballots from an envelope.

Gammill played no role in approving the entry,but ultimately authorized running the photographand related story in the May 11 Crimson.

In late May, Braunstein, Gammill and Mathewswere asked to submit statements to the Ad Boardgiving their views on what had occurred.