Prosecutors dismissed charges against 10 pro-Palestinian protesters who were accused of blocking traffic near the U.S. Custom House in Portland last year.

They each pleaded not guilty to a charge of obstructing a public way, a low-level offense carrying a maximum of 180 days in jail and $1,000 in fines. They were all planning to go to trial, and a hearing was scheduled for Thursday on their request to combine their cases.

Their charges were dismissed that morning, according to court records.

A couple of the protesters who spoke with the Portland Press Herald on Friday said their feelings were mixed — they were relieved the criminal process was over but had been looking forward to their day in court.

“I think we all wanted to speak our reasons for why we did what we did,” protester John Devlin said.

District Attorney Jacqueline Sartoris said her office decided to dismiss the charges due to limited court and prosecutor resources.

“I can’t justify spending this kind of time, which is definitely going to come at the cost of another trial with a victim who’s been waiting,” Sartoris said Friday.

Devlin, 74, is a retired physician who volunteers with Doctors without Borders, through which he said he has met other doctors who work in Gaza. He said news of humanitarian aid being blocked off and medical workers being arrested motivated him to speak out.

Before that May protest, he had already written to his elected officials, fasted and penned editorials criticizing the war.

“We felt like our backs were against the wall, because nothing was really getting traction with our government leaders,” Devlin said. “The situation was pretty dire. It’s still pretty dire now.”

Portland police arrested 20 people during the protest in May who officers said had been standing and sitting in Commercial and Pearl streets. They had refused to move even after they were given orders, police said in court records.

About half of those arrested agreed to complete community service in exchange for having their charges dismissed, according to one of the group’s lawyers, Zachary Fey. More than a dozen attorneys represented the protesters pro bono, according to court records.

Sartoris said her office regularly offers this community service deal to protesters who are arrested on charges related to civil disobedience and haven’t been accused of violence or property damage.

Had the 10 remaining defendants gone to trial, Fey said, the defense would have argued to the jury that their actions were not unreasonable that day.

“They felt that, you know, the ordinary channels of petitions and public pressure, and calling their elected representatives, basically had been exhausted and nothing was occurring,” Fey said. “So they got out there and felt compelled to act as they did. Whether it was unreasonable for them to do that would have been a question for a jury.”

Fey said their case might have included videos and news coverage of events in Gaza, to show what the group was protesting when they were arrested. It’s unclear what evidence a judge would have allowed at trial.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been in effect for more than six months, although humanitarian aid to the area remains limited and deaths continue, according to reporting from The Associated Press. Gaza’s health ministry has reported that more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, according to the AP.

Raphael John Wuesthoff, another protester who had wanted a trial, said Friday that he went to the protest in May because he believes the U.S. is complicit in human rights violations in Gaza by supplying Israel with weapons.

Wuesthoff, 87, who is a lawyer, worked for the district attorney’s offices in York and Cumberland counties in the 1970s.

“I spent a good part of my practice enforcing the rule of law,” Wuesthoff said. “I felt that this was a very minor violation of the law that we were involved in, and it was geared to call attention to the crime of all crimes: genocide. I felt that was a reasonable conduct, on our part.”