DeRay Mckesson; woman in 'iconic' photo won't be prosecuted
BATON ROUGE - The District Attorney’s Office has reviewed 185 individual affidavits of probable cause for arrests that happened during last weekend’s protests and more than half of those cases won’t be prosecuted.
District Attorney Hillar C. Moore said around 100 of the 185 arrests involved protesters who were only charged with the misdemeanor crimes of obstruction of a roadway or public passage.
According to Moore, those particular cases only involve facts where the person arrested failed to comply with an officer’s direction to leave the roadway or public passage.
The District Attorney’s Office said all citizens have the right to assemble and protest, but they don’t have the right to block streets or otherwise impede the flow of traffic.
Under state law, Moore says first-time offenders can have the misdemeanor arrests expunged from their record at zero cost should they avoid further arrests and convictions.
Only four protesters remain in the EBR Parish Prison as of Friday due to other matters. The District Attorney’s Office is continuing to perform reviews of each individual arrest connected to the protests over the shooting of Alton Sterling. Moore advises that persons who have engaged in repeated offenses, assaults, resisting arrest or other violent acts will continue to face prosecution.
Click here to view the list of protesters that will not be charged.
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On the list of people who will not be charged is Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson and Ieshia Evans whose arrest photo was deemed an "iconic" image of the turmoil in Baton Rouge.
It's been a long week. I'm going to sleep so well tonight.
— deray mckesson (@deray) July 15, 2016
Mckesson founded a group that argues for police reform, especially with how community policing and arrests are handled. Mckesson lives in Maryland and became a figure following protests in Ferguson in 2014.
Evans is a nurse and mother of a young boy. She was booked on an obstruction of a highway charge with her address listed in Dunmore, Pennsylvania.