The 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has dropped remaining charges brought by the previous district attorney against a group of local organizers involved in a protest at an Aurora police headquarters building last summer.

DA Brian Mason’s office announced Thursday he has dropped a slate of felony and misdemeanor charges against Lillian House, Joel Northam, Whitney Lucero, Terrance Roberts and Trey Quinn in connection with a protest last July 3 and 4 that surrounded the District 1 station of the Aurora Police Department with 18 officers inside.

People gathered the evening of July 3 to demand the firing of officers involved in Elijah McClain’s 2019 death, and the protest stretched into the early morning hours of July 4.

The 17th Judicial District’s previous DA, Dave Young, brought the cases against the defendants. The charges dropped by Mason, who took office in January, include felony counts for inciting a riot and misdemeanor counts for engaging in a riot and obstructing government operations.

In a statement, Mason said while he believes dropping the charges is the right thing to do based on his obligation to only pursue charges he can prove, he believes protesters tying shut doors of the station that night went beyond the bounds of peaceful protest.

“I am gratified that the five individuals, whose cases I dismiss today, say they agree with these sentiments,” Mason said. “I believe in the First Amendment, the right to peaceably assemble and the right to peaceably protest. These should not be in conflict with one another.”

In March, a district court judge in Adams County threw out attempted kidnapping charges against House, Northam and Lucero, the most serious counts faced by the trio. He found there was not sufficient evidence to show the three of them actually directed other protesters to barricade doors of the station, and they were not accused of doing so themselves.

The statement posted by Mason’s office also included statements from the protesters and their attorneys. Each statement says tying the station’s doors went too far and emphasize their rights to peacefully protest.

“The law is clear that tying doors to a police station is not legal and there never has been an allegation that our clients did so,” said attorneys for House, Northam and Lucero in a joint statement. “The goals of peaceful protest are not to prevent police from responding to calls for service, but to affect change that affect the needs of the community.”

In a preliminary hearing in March for the attempted kidnapping charges against the trio, their defense attorneys slammed the charges against them as politically motivated and said an Aurora police investigator had made “selective” decisions about probable cause to charge Northam, House and Lucero based on their skilled abilities to organize people.