BREAKING NEWS:

A judge today dismissed the city of Costa Mesa’s case against Benito Acosta, a student activist who was arrested after protesting the city’s immigration enforcement plans at a 2006 council meeting.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Kelly MacEachern scrapped the case because City Prosecutor Dan Peelman failed to get sworn in as a public prosecutor before filing the case in May 2006. State law and the state constitution require attorneys to be sworn in as public prosecutors to bring charges.

Acosta, 26, also known as Coyotl Tezcatlipoca, was charged with three misdemeanor violations of city code regarding conduct at a City Council meeting and faced up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for each count. At the meeting, he told supporters from the podium to stand up, even after the mayor said that wasn’t allowed.

The city remains the defendant in a civil case ACLU attorneys filed on Acosta’s behalf.