A crowd of courtroom observers applauded Wednesday night after jurors acquitted a protester of pushing a police officer outside a Dole Institute of Politics dedication event.

The verdict marks the latest victory for the Dole event protesters, several of whom have been found not guilty.

Jurors deliberated for about four hours before acquitting Wesley R. Teal, 19, Lawrence, of misdemeanor battery on a law enforcement officer.

Prosecutors alleged Teal bumped Lt. Ray Urbanek with a plastic shield in a scuffle that happened when Teal and other protesters tried to cross the road July 21 outside a $500-per-plate dinner at the Lawrence Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive. Teal testified Wednesday that he didn’t remember touching the officer.

“They only had one witness that testified that I touched Urbanek, and that was Urbanek himself,” Teal said later.

About a dozen of Teal’s supporters hugged or pumped their fists after Douglas County District Judge Paula Martin read the verdict.

Teal and about 70 others marched on the hotel because they viewed the dinner as an insult to the poor and hungry. Police arrested 18 for offenses including walking in the roadway, disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly, battery and failure to get a parade permit.

After a November trial in municipal court, Judge Randy McGrath cleared six protesters of four of the five charges against them, saying that evidence for one of the charges fell “woefully short.”

Two other protesters await trial for battery on a law enforcement officer.