By Dave Orrick

St. Paul Pioneer Press

ST. PAUL — A Ramsey County judge Wednesday threw out the most serious charges against 40 or so people charged in connection with violent St. Paul protests following the July shooting of Philando Castile by a St. Anthony police officer.

While police swept up and arrested 102 people who had blocked Interstate 94 in St. Paul on July 9, eventually charging 47, prosecutors provided no evidence that any of them, individually, threw rocks, cement and bottles at police officers, District Judge G. Tony Atwal wrote in a ruling filed Wednesday evening.

It was that alleged conduct — which police said injured up to 21 officers — that garnered charges of third-degree riot, a gross misdemeanor, against the 47. They were also charged with public nuisance and unlawful assembly, lesser charges that Atwal said could proceed. A hearing on the issue had been scheduled for Thursday.

Among the original 47, a number have pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for dropping the riot charge. St. Paul City Attorney Samuel Clark said Wednesday night that he stands by that philosophy.

“We’re reviewing the order,” Clark said. “In the meantime, we continue to believe that our offers to each of the defendants, which has been to plead guilty to one of the misdemeanor charges, were reasonable given the conduct, and the order doesn’t really change that belief.”

Castile, a 32-year-old cafeteria supervisor at a St. Paul elementary school, was shot and killed by St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez during a July 6 traffic stop in Falcon Heights.

Castile’s fiancee broadcast the immediate aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook, launching the incident to the forefront of the national debate about police shootings of black men and galvanizing local supporters of Black Lives Matter.

A slew of protests and demonstrations followed Castile’s shooting, including the July 9 protest, which shut down I-94 in St. Paul. In  November, the city estimated the protests had cost the city more than $1.9 million.

On Wednesday, Atwal granted a motion, filed by attorneys representing the defendants, to dismiss the riot charges. There was no probable cause for such a charge, he said.

“For example,” Atwal wrote in the order to dismiss charges against one of the defendants, Aamina Abdirashid Mohamed, “there are no record facts that Defendant threw rocks, cement chunks, rebar, bottles, and other items at law enforcement officers.”

In November, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi announced that Castile’s shooting was not justified, and Yanez was charged with second-degree manslaughter and other counts. Yanez’s lawyers have asked that the charges be dismissed.