Prosecutors have dropped all criminal charges against a 66-year-old protester whose bloodied face and broken nose became a calling card for criticism of police use of force in breaking up downtown demonstrations.

Margaret "Peggy" Zebroski, a retired physician’s assistant, was protesting police violence on Feb. 20 when she was arrested for blocking traffic. She was charged with second-degree disorderly conduct, interfering with a peace officer and resisting arrest.

Videos showed her standing in the street holding a “Don’t Shoot Portland” banner. Zebroski said she got off the street, but police dragged her back into the street and shoved her face into the asphalt. Video shows an officer kneeing her from behind, near the neck and upper shoulders while she's on the ground.

Photos of Zebroski's scraped-up face circled the globe. The 5-foot-1 grandmother of five barely stood shoulder-height to two officers in riot gear who escorted her to a police van.

Prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor criminal case against Zebroski last week after Deputy District Attorney Haley Rayburn watched videos of the protest and arrest provided by Zebroski's defense attorney.

In the videos, Zebroski didn't appear to interfere with officers who were arresting another protester, Rayburn said. Officers had claimed that she impeded them.

Rayburn also told The Oregonian/OregonLive that although Zebroski had defied police orders to leave the street at Southwest Third Avenue and Madison Street, she could have successfully defended herself by arguing that she was committing "passive resistance." Rayburn said her office was basing that assessment on an Oregon Supreme Court ruling in April in a case with some similar circumstances.

Reached by phone Monday, Zebroski said she was “stunned” by the force police used against her -- and that if officers thought she was illegally blocking traffic, they could have handed her a ticket.

Zebroski said she had left the street and was standing next to some plantings along the sidewalk when police stormed toward her and other protesters and took them into custody.

“It was not done in a friendly or nice way,” said Zebroski, now 67. “It was an attack. ... I was just dragged off into the street and (then I'm) on my face.”

Zebroski said her glasses where digging into her face and her nose hurt.

“I remember saying, ‘Please, you’re hurting me! Please, you’re hurting me!’ and I was trying to get him to stop,” Zebroski said of the officer who kneed her.

Zebroski was arrested at noon. She spent the next six hours in police and jail custody before being released. Zebroski has no criminal history, and it was her first trip to jail, she said.

Portland defense lawyer Matthew McHenry took on her case for free.

"What I don't like to see is arrests like this happen that chill the voice of people who are just exercising their right to free speech," McHenry said.

Zebroski was one of seven adults and six juveniles arrested during the “Not My Presidents Day” protests.

Although police didn’t use pepper spray or rubber bullets during Zebroski’s arrest, they did use them at other times that day in an effort to manage the crowds, police said. The ACLU of Oregon described the police tactics as “shameful.”

Police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said at the time that the police actions were necessary to control unruly protesters who were out to block streets and shut down the city.

Police arrested some protesters after they left the street because running to the sidewalk is “not like homebase,” Simpson said.

On videos taken by onlookers, police can be heard stating over a loudspeaker: "This is the Portland Police Bureau. Southwest Third Avenue and Madison Street is open to vehicular traffic. You must immediately vacate the roadway and proceed to the sidewalk. If you remain in the roadway, you may be subject to arrest for disorderly conduct, interfering with a peace officer and other state and city offenses. Move to the sidewalk now."

Zebroski estimated that she and other protesters were in the street for about 20 minutes.

“I don’t think we were causing risk to the public,” she said. It was possible for traffic to pass by in one lane, she said, before police shut down the street.

Her experience hasn’t quashed her willingness to protest for causes she believes in, she said.

Of the seven adults arrested that day, five have had all charges against them dropped.

One of the dismissed cases was against Tristan Isaac Romine-Mann, a 37-year-old protester who originally gave his name to police as “Quanice Hayes.” Hayes was a 17-year-old African American shot and killed by Portland police during an armed robbery investigation on Feb. 9, 11 days before the downtown protest.

Two Feb. 20 protest cases -- against Lucy Elizabeth Smith and Rebecca Smith-White -- are still pending. They've both been charged with second-degree disorderly conduct.

-- Aimee Green