PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is dismissing the charges against 12 protesters who were arrested in downtown Phoenix in August 2020.
But County Attorney Allister Adel said she intends to file different charges against some of these defendants based on their conduct during the protest.
Charges dropped but county attorney intends to refile some
Dozens of protesters marched through city streets to the front of Phoenix Police headquarters. Several were taken into custody and charged with felony and misdemeanor offenses the night of Aug. 9, 2020.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Adel said her office believes "it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the current charges."
Adel said they "intend to refile charges against some of these defendants, but most of those charges will be different than the current charges. Where felony offense are appropriate, we intend to initiate those cases by preliminary hearing."
Adel didn’t elaborate on the filing of new charges.
Protesters speak out, say they are relieved but want accountability
Former Missouri House Representative and community activist Bruce Franks Jr. is one of the 12 who were arrested during the protests.
Franks Jr. was leading a rally commemorating the sixth anniversary of the death of Missouri teenager Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson.
"The interest of justice was not charging us in the first place because we did nothing wrong," said Franks Jr. "Although my charges and others from August 9th got dropped, we still got July and October charges of folks doing the same thing we were doing."
Franks and others claim that Phoenix police targeted them for exercising their first amendment rights. In an interview last summer.
Chief Jeri Williams told 12 News that her department was not targeting protesters.
"We are addressing criminal behavior," said Williams. "We have people with documented criminal behavior that we are dealing with because we want to keep the community safe, because we want to keep the officers safe, because we want to keep the protesters safe."
Percy Christian spent nine days in jail following his arrest in August. He is relieved by Adel's decision to drop but says there needs to be accountability for Phoenix police and MCAO.
"I feel like it should at least start with acknowledging the issues and acknowledging where you went wrong. Allister Adel, nor Jeri Williams, nor anyone in these powerful positions are doing that," said Christian. "The culture they have established, especially in the Phoenix Police Department is just rotten."
Investigations into Phoenix Police and MCAO
Both internal and external investigations have been launched to determine whether evidence presented to a grand jury was accurate in more than two dozen cases.
A total of 14 officers have been reassigned during these investigations. April Sponsel, the MCAO lead prosecutor for a number of protest cases, is on administrative leave amid the outside investigation.
Latest in Adel's office dropping cases against protesters
These dismissals are the latest for Adel's office. MCAO recently dropped gang charges filed against 15 Phoenix protesters for a rally on Oct. 17, 2020.
"You can't drop our charges and think you can keep these police officers that lied on the police force. You can't drop our charges and think you can keep this police chief who was complicit as the police chief," said Franks Jr.
"You can't drop our charges and think we are going to be okay with you keeping these prosecutors on who worked in concert with the police department for these political prosecutions."
