A Travis County judge dismissed charges Monday against a former UT Austin lecturer for his alleged behavior during a pro-Palestinian protest last year.
Judge Carlos Barrera granted a motion to dismiss charges against Rich Heyman after prosecutors failed to get an indictment within the amount of time required by state law.
"The fact that we're here at all today is ridiculous," Heyman said outside the courtroom. "We shouldn't even be here."
The Travis County Attorney's Office said in a statement they do not plan to pursue the case further after the judge's dismissal.
In May, state police arrested Heyman outside his home and charged him with interfering with public duties, a misdemeanor. A state trooper accused Heyman of pulling on a bicycle he was using to create a barrier around protesters gathered on the South Lawn on April 29.
Hours after the arrest, UT Austin fired Heyman via email. According to Heyman’s lawyer, university officials did not provide a reason for the firing. Heyman taught courses across several departments, including the Department of American Studies and the College of Liberal Arts, and had worked at the university for nearly 20 years, according to his resume.
One of Heyman’s lawyers, Gerry Morris, asked the court to dismiss the case in November, arguing Heyman was not indicted within 180 days of posting bond as required by state law. On Monday, Judge Barrera agreed to dismiss the charges.
State trooper Thomas Goodson had also accused Heyman of holding a water bottle above his head as if to swing it at him. He said Heyman broke his $62 state-issued bike bell. Morris refuted this narrative, arguing Heyman gripped the bicycle to stop himself from falling after the officer pushed him.
With the dismissal Monday, Heyman joins dozens of others arrested at pro-Palestinian protests last spring whose criminal charges have not been pursued. Police arrested more than 130 people across two days of protests, charging the majority of them with criminal trespass, a misdemeanor similar to loitering.
In the months following the arrests, Travis County Attorney Delia Garza dropped charges against nearly all of the protesters. She said prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to proceed with these cases.
Many of those arrested during the protests were UT Austin students. In the months following the arrests, university officials disciplined students, offering many of them probation in lieu of harsher punishment. Others were suspended, and at least one student still faces criminal charges. Another has sued the university, arguing leaders violated his right to free speech when police arrested him on campus.
Hundreds of faculty members condemned university officials' response to the protests and said they had lost confidence in the leadership of UT Austin President Jay Hartzell. Last week, Hartzell announced he had accepted a job to lead Southern Methodist University in Dallas and would leave his post at the end of May.
KUT journalists are employees of the University of Texas at Austin, but the university has no editorial control over their reporting.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated that UT Austin fired Heyman the day after his arrest. It was the same day.