The Illinois city that arrested a local man for parodying its mayor on Twitter said Monday that the prankster’s detainment wasn’t “unreasonable.”

The arrest of Jonathan Daniel by Peoria authorities in April made national headlines, and the 29-year-old cook sued in federal court, claiming civil rights violations.

In its first response to the lawsuit, the city of Peoria’s and Mayor Jim Ardis’ attorney told Ars that the mayor and city officials believed Daniel was breaching an Illinois law making it illegal to impersonate a public official. The mayor’s attorney said city officials got a judge to issue warrants from Twitter and Comcast to track down Daniel. In short, they were just following the law.

Read more at ars technica here.