The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday dropped all charges against the remaining “Broadview Six” protesters, citing apparent misconduct by prosecutors in the grand jury proceedings that led to last fall’s indictments.
The case had been scheduled to go to a rare federal misdemeanor trial next week after having been reduced from six to four defendants in March before prosecutors suddenly announced their decision to drop the marquee felony conspiracy charge late last month.
But in a stunning turn of events Thursday, a federal judge canceled the trial after a closed-door hearing in which she rebuked prosecutors for both their dealings with the grand jury and for having previously obscured parts of the grand jury transcript that would have revealed their apparent misconduct earlier.
