News, Culture and NPR for Central & Northern Michigan
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
91.7FM Alpena and WCML-TV Channel 6 Alpena have been restored. Click here to learn more.

Some Black Lives Matter protestors have had criminal cases dismissed

"My Trusty Gavel" by steakpinball is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

28 protesters with Detroit’s Black Lives movement were handed a legal victory today (THU). A judge in the 36th District Court dismissed some of their criminal cases without prejudice.

That means city attorneys can attempt to prosecute the cases again… if they provide certain evidence like the names of arresting officers. John Royal with the Detroit chapter of the National Lawyers Guild is defending many who were charged by the city. He says the dismissal supports the claim that people were unlawfully arrested.

“Many of these protesters were arrested without probable cause," said Royal. "Some were severely injured and beaten by Detroit police in the course of being arrested.”

Royal says the precedent could apply to hundreds of other defendants appearing before different judges. And the dismissal could play into a federal civil rights complaint against the city made by the Detroit Will Breathe protest group.