“The County Attorney’s decision to dismiss these protest charges in piecemeal is utterly unacceptable and nothing short of violent. We must make clear that these charges should never have been brought to begin with. People with these false charges have suffered greatly due to the police and prosecutor misconduct in these cases. And although cases have been dropped, police and prosecutors still refuse to release the property of individuals who were charged. People have lost housing and jobs. One person has been in jail for months due to the 8/9 charges.

Maricopa County Attorney’s Office didn’t dismiss these cases in the interest of justice. We are only seeing these dismissals because of organizers, attorneys and journalists who had the courage to shine light on what the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and the Phoenix Police Department routinely do in the dark.

There are still many protest cases remaining, including a group from 7/18/20, two cases from10/3/20, and several individual cases in between. The remaining cases have the same deficiencies as the other cases that have already been dropped; the same lying cops, the same lying prosecutors, the same prosecutorial misconduct, the same fabricated evidence, and the same blatant bias.

Allister Adel knows well enough that misconduct and bias is enough of a reason to drop ALL cases brought by the prosecutors and cops in these cases. Any case brought by April Sponsel and Nick Michaud, who have both solicited perjured testimony and manufactured a fake gang to manipulate a grant jury, absolutely cannot be trusted. If these two would lie and collude with Phoenix PD in these protest cases, it’s likely they have lied and fabricated evidence in other cases, as well.

We are so happy for those protesters whose charges were recently dropped and we will continue to support those with remaining charges. However, dropping the charges isn’t enough. Our community demands accountability!”