Stokes said he gave an officer at the entrance to the police department an ultimatum.

“I said to either take them into custody or have the judge set a new court date,” Stokes said. “I told him if that didn’t happen I would chain them to (Police) Chief (Greg) Benton’s vehicle or the courtroom door. Something has to change. Nothing was going to get resolved today the way the process is. They were going to run around for another month and that doesn’t help anyone. I’m just trying to get things resolved.”

Tiller and Reese said the officer told Stokes he could not chain them to the courtroom door. Stokes did, and left. Stokes said when he returned about 20 minutes later, the two men had been freed.

“There are about 200 officers. They should all have handcuff keys and could have freed them at any time,” Stokes said.

Tiller and Reese both said they plan to file a complaint with the Dothan Police Department.

“I didn’t know what was going on. I had my head down the whole time. I was embarrassed,” Tiller said. “I mean, I didn’t do anything major. I’m not trying to cause any problems for anybody. I just thought what was done was wrong. Couldn’t this have been solved some other way?”