IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Jurors have acquitted an Iowa journalist who was pepper-sprayed and arrested by police while covering a protest in a case that critics have derided as an attack on press freedom and an abuse of prosecutorial discretion. A jury found Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri not guilty on misdemeanor charges of failure to disperse and interference with official acts.

It also acquitted her former boyfriend, Spenser Robnett, of the same charges, which carried the threat of fines and even jail time. The verdict came after a three-day trial in Des Moines.