A jury of six women and men found former State Representative Ed Fallon not guilty today of trespassing in connection with last October’s Occupy protests on the state capitol grounds.

Fallon was one of about 30 Occupy protesters arrested last October and is the first to stand trial. His attorney, Joseph Glazebrook, won a procedural motion earlier this week, ensuring that the defense would be allowed to raise First Amendment issues during the trial. Fallon acknowledged on the witness stand that he violated a curfew. Glazebrook argued that his client was “acting reasonably” to exercise his constitutional rights.

After four hours of deliberation yesterday afternoon and this morning, the jury reached a unanimous verdict.

Juror Aimee Mairs told KCCI’s Amanda Lewis that the decision was a matter of putting the U. S. Constitution above a state imposed curfew. She said four jurors were on board right away, but it took some time to convince the other two jurors.

Mairs said the jury decided Fallon was justified in being on the grounds for the purpose of exercising his First Amendment rights.

Occupy Des Moines has called for prosecutors to drop trespassing charges against the other defendants scheduled to stand trial. I’ll update this post with further developments as necessary.