Arizona judge dismisses charges against mother arrested for criticizing officials during city council meeting

A judge on Wednesday filed criminal charges against an Arizona mother who was arrested during a city council meeting for criticizing a public official. He called her arrest “objectively outrageous.”

Maricopa County Judge Gerald Williams rejected with prejudice the trespassing charge against Rebekah Massie. On August 20, the mayor of Surprise, Arizona, ordered a police officer arrest Massie during the public comment section of a city council meeting after Massie criticized a proposed pay increase for the city attorney. The mayor claimed she violated a rule banning complaints against city officials during public comments, and when she refused to stop speaking, he had her forcibly removed and arrested.

“No branch of any federal, state, or local government in this country should ever attempt to control the content of political speech,” Williams wrote in his dismissal order. “In this case, the government did so in a way that was objectively outrageous.”

After her arrest, Massie immediately filed First Amendment lawsuitwith representation from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), arguing that the City Council’s speech policy was unconstitutional and that city officials illegally retaliated against her and violated her First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

However, the threat of criminal prosecution hung over her head.

“For more than two months I have been living with the threat of punishment and imprisonment – ​​even taken away from my children – because I did nothing but criticize the government,” Massie said in a FIRE press release. “Freedom of speech is still important in America, and I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have people on my side standing up for our rights with me.”

Massie is a community activist and nonprofit founder, The big failurewhere she advocates for more transparency and infrastructure improvements in the city. She was represented in her criminal case by Bret Royle, an attorney at Feldman Royle.

“Rebekah should never have been detained, let alone criminally prosecuted, for speaking out,” Royle said in the press release. “Things like that happen in tyrannical countries, but they should never happen here. No American should face jail time for exercising their freedom of speech, and we are relieved that the court agreed.”

The Supreme Court has ruled that criticizing government officials, even with coarse or vulgar language, is speech protected by the First Amendment. In public forums – such as when a city council invites public comment – ​​governments can impose reasonable limits on the time and manner of speaking, but they may not discriminate against certain viewpoints.

Nevertheless, similar cases of small-town tyrants continue to emerge.

For example, last year a man from Iowa filed a First Amendment lawsuit after being arrested twice for criticizing his city’s police during the public comment periods of City Council hearings. The city council adopted a policy similar to Surprise’s ban on “derogatory statements or comments about any individual.”

In 2022, FIRE also filed a lawsuit on behalf of residents of Eastpointe, Michigan, who were shouted and prevented from speaking by the mayor of the city during a public meeting. The city apologized and rescinded its policy limiting comments “directed at” elected officials.

The judge’s decision to dismiss the charges against Massie with prejudice means prosecutors can never refile them. Prosecutors unsuccessfully argued that Williams should not be allowed to watch the film video of Massie’s arrest, showing her repeated and correct claims that the city’s policy is unconstitutional.

“The defendant should not have faced criminal charges even once for expressing her political views,” Williams wrote. “The Court agrees that she should never be prosecuted because she again expressed her political views on that date.”

Conor Fitzpatrick, a FIRE attorney, said in a press release that Massie’s lawsuit against Surprise will continue: “We want to make it crystal clear to governments in the United States that there are costs to blatantly censoring people and betraying the First Amendment.”

The City of Surprise did not immediately return a request for comment.