DeKalb County’s solicitor-general, Donna Coleman-Stribling, dismissed three charges against local journalist Mario Guevara on Wednesday afternoon that stemmed from his arrest at a June 14 protest on Chamblee Tucker Road.
“After carefully reviewing the evidence, including video evidence surrounding his arrest, I have determined that, while there was probable cause to support the initial arrest, the evidence is insufficient to sustain a prosecution beyond a reasonable doubt,” Coleman-Stribling said.
Doraville Police arrested Guevara while he was live-streaming an anti-Trump and anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protest near the Embry Village shopping center in unincorporated DeKalb County. He was charged with unlawful assembly, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and pedestrian improperly entering a roadway.
According to the Solicitor-General’s office, “at the time of his arrest, the video evidence shows Mr. Guevara generally in compliance and does not demonstrate the intent to disregard law enforcement directives. Given the lack of a clear criminal intent by Mr. Guevara to ignore any lawful commands, the case is dismissed as charged.”
The dismissal of charges in DeKalb comes after press freedom groups and members of the public called for his release and condemned his initial arrest by law enforcement. Guevara, an El Salvadoran national living in the US for over 20 years with legal work authorization, was handed over to ICE on June 18 by the DeKalb County Jail and was transported to the Folkston ICE Processing Center in south Georgia.
Following his arrest, the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office charged Guevara with three more misdemeanors, violations committed while reporting on ICE activity, according to local news reports.
Guevara’s attorney, Giovanni Díaz, told Atlanta Civic Circle that the dismissal was the “expected result” and he was “happy DeKalb agreed it was the appropriate result.”
Díaz said the Gwinnett charges are still being worked on but that nonetheless he is optimistic Guevara will secure a bond when he appears before a federal immigration judge for a hearing scheduled Tuesday.
“We are confident in securing him a bond,” he said.
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