A criminal complaint was filed against the woman who was arrested at the surprise council meeting

A surprised mother found herself handcuffed after criticizing a city official at a city council meeting this summer. Now, a Maricopa County judge has dismissed the criminal case against him.

At their arraignment, defense attorney Greg Royle said the city of Surprise would not present him with evidence such as police reports or body camera footage of his client Rebekah Massie being handcuffed and detained in front of her child.

“Rolling your eyes is one thing. “I guess that’s their right,” Royle said. “But I know this: I don’t care what’s on the back of a form. You can’t arrest someone who criticizes a city official.”

Royle, who asked for the case to be dismissed without prejudice, said he would leave the door open to re-filing charges against Massie, adding that Massie wanted to expunge the arrest from his record.

“(The city’s attorneys) were trying to say: ‘Look, whether Ms. Massie’s arrest was based on probable cause — or whether it was fundamentally valid — is irrelevant. Because all we’re talking about here is whether the case will be dismissed with or without prejudice,” Royle said.

If the case is dismissed without prejudice, Royle said, Surprise’s obligation to send him case evidence and the court’s opportunity to view footage of the incident would be eliminated.

“The state merely took action, quote unquote, to impeach in the interest of justice. They say, ‘Look, it was the right thing to do,'” Royle said. “And my view was, ‘Hey, if it’s the right thing to do, dismiss with prejudice, get this done once and for all, don’t leave open the option of re-filing him.’ And they said no.”

The judge ultimately ruled in Massie’s favor. While the judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning Massie could not face the charges again, he called the city’s actions “objectively outrageous.”

“I think this was the only time in my career that I fought a motion to dismiss without prejudice on behalf of one of my clients. It’s usually an opportunity you’re happy about,” Royle said. “It’s hard for me to applaud them correcting something that should never have happened and then correcting it in an imperfect way. So I’m glad the court stepped in and did what the city attorneys couldn’t do.”

Massie’s civil lawsuit against Surprise is still ongoing.