{"id":2587836,"date":"2026-04-06T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tim-walz-appointed-judge-throws-out-all-charges-against-woman-accused-of-interrupting-easter-service\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T21:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T01:02:14","slug":"tim-walz-appointed-judge-throws-out-all-charges-against-woman-accused-of-interrupting-easter-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tim-walz-appointed-judge-throws-out-all-charges-against-woman-accused-of-interrupting-easter-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Walz-Appointed Judge Throws Out All Charges Against Woman Accused of Interrupting Easter Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftim-walz-appointed-judge-throws-out-all-charges-against-woman-accused-of-interrupting-easter-service%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2587836&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In st.Paul, Minnesota, anti-ICE protesters disrupted Easter sunday services at Cities Church, leading to the arrest of Emily Heather Phillips, 33, who was charged with four <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >misdemeanors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/january-6-defendant-dies-by-suicide\/\" title=\"January 6 Defendant Dies By Suicide\">including disorderly conduct<\/a><\/a> and interrupting a religious observance. At Monday\u2019s arraignment, Ramsey County District Court Judge maria Mitchell dismissed the charges, finding there was no probable cause. Police had said protesters used a blow horn and were given warnings to stop before arrests for interference with a religious observance and related ordinances; one adult female arrest was noted. Phillips\u2019s attorney, Trisha Pohland, argued her client had a first Amendment right to protest. Church leaders, including lead pastor Jonathan Parnell, lamented the dismissal but urged enforcement of the law to protect peaceful worship, noting that about 20 protesters gathered outside and harassed worshippers. The church has faced weeks of demonstrations, with earlier protests in January and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/texas-ag-paxton-returns-after-4-month-impeachment-trial-to-find-bidens-border-antics\/\" title=\"Texas AG Paxton returns from 4-month impeachment trial to find Biden&#039;s border antics.\">ongoing tension surrounding<\/a> the congregation\u2019s Easter services.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Destroying the sanctity of one of Christianity&rsquo;s holiest days is not a crime in Minnesota, according to a Tim Walz-appointed judge.<\/p>\n<p>Anti-ICE protesters refused to allow the members of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ in peace and joy on Sunday, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/alphanews.org\/serial-anti-ice-agitator-arrested-after-disrupting-easter-service-at-cities-church\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alpha News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The church, which was the site of a demonstration in January led by Don Lemon and other protesters, has been the site of protests for weeks, even on Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Emily Heather Phillips, 33, of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, was arrested Sunday and charged with four misdemeanors, including disorderly conduct, interrupting a religious observance, knowingly participating in a noisy assembly, and continuing to disturb the peace.<\/p>\n<p>She did not stay in jail long.<\/p>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\tif ( getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"anyclipvideo\").remove() \t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\tdocument.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", function() { \t\t\t\t\tfunction loadAnyclip() { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst container=document.getElementById(\"anyclipvideo\"); 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\t\t\t\t\tobserveElement(paragraphToObserve); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p>During her arraignment Monday at 9 a.m., Ramsey County District Court Judge Maria Mitchell, who was appointed in 2022 by Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, threw out the charges, saying there was &ldquo;no probable cause.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That&rsquo;s not how St. Paul police saw it in a statement <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/lizcollin\/status\/2040860248421147128?%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2040860248421147128%7Ctwgr%5E415a2ead5451ddbbaf5932be12a778c19f9882d7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Falphanews.org%2Fserial-anti-ice-agitator-arrested-after-disrupting-easter-service-at-cities-church%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">posted to X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;At 8:35 a.m. today, Saint Paul police officers were working contracted overtime at Cities Church when a group of protesters [was] outside of the church during Easter services. The protesters were using a blow-horn and yelling loudly, disrupting the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/macarthur-the-end-of-frivolous-religion\/\" title=\"MacArthur: The End of Frivolous Religion?\">church services<\/a>,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/national-guard-deployed-in-minneapolis-after-fatal-police-shooting\/\" title=\"National Guard Deployed In Minneapolis After Fatal ... Shooting\">police wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The protesters were given numerous announcements by officers to stop, or they would be cited and possibly arrested. The majority of the group complied. One person, an adult female, did not comply and was arrested by officers for interference with religious observance, and Saint Paul City Ordinances 293.02 and 293.07,&rdquo; police wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Trisha Pohland, the attorney for Phillips, said her client had a First Amendment right to ruin a Christian holy day.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Law enforcement is really cracking down on First Amendment rights,&rdquo; she said, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twincities.com\/2026\/04\/06\/st-paul-judge-dismisses-charges-woman-arrested-outside-cities-church\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Saint Paul Pioneer Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very important that individuals have the right to protest without the fear of going to jail,&rdquo; she added.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Cities Church parishioners continue to be &lsquo;hounded&rsquo; and &lsquo;harassed&rsquo; by anti-ICE protesters, churchgoer says<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;They block the sidewalk and are cussing us out as we walk into church,&rdquo; a churchgoer told Crime Watch Minneapolis. &ldquo;I just want the freedom to worship without [fear] and&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4YNWEOsxf4\">pic.twitter.com\/4YNWEOsxf4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Alpha News (@AlphaNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlphaNews\/status\/2039432054580875484?\">April 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Parnell, lead pastor at Cities Church, said he was &ldquo;disheartened&rdquo; that the charges were tossed.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;State law protects the right of people of faith to worship in peace, and I call on state and local officials to enforce the law,&rdquo; Parnell said.<\/p>\n<p>About 20 protesters &ldquo;gathered in the green space on Summit Avenue in front of the entrance to Cities Church,&rdquo; Parnell said. &ldquo;They held signs with obscenities and yelled harassing comments at families and individual worshippers.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Parnell said he was &ldquo;grateful for SPPD&rsquo;s measured response and their efforts to protect the congregation&rsquo;s ability to gather and worship peacefully. While similar protests have continued in recent weeks, the people of Cities Church have sought to respond with patience and kindness.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a concise paraphrase of the article content:<\/p>\n<p>A Ramsey County District Court judge appointed by Gov. Tim Walz dismissed four misdemeanor charges against Emily Heather Phillips related to Easter Sunday protests outside Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, finding there was no probable cause. Police had said protesters outside the church disrupted services with a blow horn, and one adult female protester was arrested for interference with religious observance and violations of city ordinances after officers warned them to stop. Phillips\u2019s attorney argued the arrest infringed First Amendment rights, while church leaders expressed disappointment at the dismissal and noted ongoing protests near the church, urging officials to enforce the law to protect worshippers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2587837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Cities-Church-arrestee-released.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[77292,77291,59745,50433,70228],"class_list":["post-2587836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-charges-dismissed-2","tag-easter-service-2","tag-interruption-2","tag-judge-2","tag-tim-walz-2"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Cities-Church-arrestee-released.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2587836"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2587840,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587836\/revisions\/2587840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2587837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2587836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2587836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2587836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}