"Regardless of your passions and opinions, you cannot block public roads," he said. "If you rule against the state here, I can't go lay out in the street and protest your actions."

The defense attorneys countered that the state's case jumped to too many conclusions. They suggested their clients had not decided to stop the car in the road, that they might have had mechanical problems, and that no one had testified to feeling harassed by them.

"These officers arrived there without really knowing what was going on. And they just made some assumptions. And without asking anybody anything, they charged people with crimes," Thomason said.

Sentencing

After an hour of deliberation, the jury found the men guilty of the two Class B misdemeanors. Romanick gave them 10-day suspended sentences, meaning they will serve no jail time if they successfully complete a year on unsupervised probation. He also ordered $500 in restitution to law enforcement and $500 in reimbursement to their public defenders, along with mandatory court fees.