Allen County Prosecutor addresses charges filed against protesters

Allen County Prosecutor addresses charges filed against protesters

Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards said it will take some time before the prosecutor’s office will be able to determine if charges filed against protesters on May 29 and 30 should be dropped.

For joining us.the allen county prosecutor's office has been flooded with requests to drop charges against those who were arrested during protests.

Fox 55's jeremy masukevich shows us the steps the prosecutor's office is taking to make sure protesters aren't wrongfully convicted.

There are hundreds of hours of video and other related evidence coming from a multitude of sources.allen county prosecutor karen richards says the prosecutor's office has received hundreds of requests to drop charges filed against protesters may 29th and 30th.lower third: karen richards, allen county prosecutor sot richards 40:12i want to know about everything.

I want to know what you think of the chargers that were filed, if we find any of the charged people in the videos doing anything.

I want to see if you can pinpoint any of the people who we have not arrested.richards is asking for community members and local media to come forward with additional video that could be used as evidence.sot richards 34:05my best guess is its probably going to take us at least 30 days to go through everything.

So im not expecting to have any decision quickly and i dont think it would be appropriate to give those decisions quickly.

Richards says the cases under review include over 100 misdemeanor charges, but does not include protesters who were charged with felonies.sot richards 37:10an appropriate end result is what everyone should be looking for here not something that happens quickly without a review of the evidence that needs to be reviewed.sgt sofia rosales scatena says she did not expect police to have to intervene again after two weeks of peaceful protests.she says fwpd is looking to get the leaders of fort wayne protest groups in the same room to discuss future change, as well as change that is already taking place.sot sofia 50:57the quicker we can end the protests and sit down at the table and get to work i think the quicker we will see changes if they need to happen, or we can have education on what we have been doing and that might be exactly what they are looking to have done.

Richards says there is a potential for some misdemeanor charges to be dropped, but expects all felony charges to remain in place.she is advising the prosector's office to take note of all unlawful actions in protest videos including actions of police officers.sot richards 40:45and if you find individual police officers who you feel acted inappropriately , yeah i want you to mark that video for review as well.

And ive told that to the police chief so this is an all encompassing reviewin fort wayne, jeremy masukevich, fox 55