Judge blasts 'outrageous' arrest of Arizona mom who criticized bureaucrat, bans future arrest

The city of Surprise, Arizona, won't get another chance to surprise Rebekah Massie with criminal prosecution for speaking at city council meetings after a Maricopa County judge dismissed the case with prejudice, rejecting the government's request to give itself wiggle room to charge her again.

Justice of the peace Gerald Williams called her arrest for criticizing the city attorney's pay raise "objectively outrageous" and blasted the policy under which Massie was arrested for regulating "not just speech; but political speech" and "not just the time, place, and manner of the speech" but its content. 

"No branch of any federal, state, or local government in this country should ever attempt to control the content of political speech," Williams wrote in his decision Wednesday, shared with Just the News on Thursday by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which is representing Massie in a federal First Amendment lawsuit. 

The city ditched the policy after FIRE sued. Local attorney Bret Royle represented Massie in the criminal case. 

"The Defendant should not have faced criminal prosecution once for expressing her political views," the judge wrote. "The Court agrees that she should never face criminal prosecution, for expressing her political views on that date at that time, again. Nor should she be forced to encounter additional attorney fees should this matter be re-filed, as she
would not likely be entitled to a court-appointed attorney."

Massie said in FIRE's press release: “For more than two months I’ve been living with the threat of punishment and jail time – being taken away from my kids, even – for doing nothing more than criticizing the government. Free speech still matters in America, and I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have people on my side standing up for our rights with me.”

The state of Arizona, which prosecuted the case, sought to dismiss it without prejudice and tried to stop Williams from determining whether Surprise had probable cause for Massie's arrest, telling the judge he should not "view the video record of the city council meeting" because it was "irrelevant" to his pending ruling on its motion.

The alternative to him watching the video, which Massie "referenced in the record," is Williams ordering "an evidentiary hearing, which would be inconsistent with judicial economy given that both parties agree the charge should be dismissed" and his only question was the relevance of the video to whether Massie's future prosecution should be banned, the judge wrote.

FIRE's federal lawsuit continues against the city, Mayor Skip Hall and police officer Steven Shernicoff. "We want to make it crystal clear to governments across the United States that brazenly censoring people and betraying the First Amendment comes with a cost," FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick said.