photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Natasha Neal is pictured on June 29, 2020, during a shutdown of Massachusetts Street near South Park. Activists blocked the street for several days in an effort to free Rontarus Washington Jr. from jail.

A judge on Friday dismissed a felony gun charge against a Lawrence activist after the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office failed to produce two witnesses for a probable cause hearing.

The case involves Natasha Neal, a local activist who led the Massachusetts Street shutdown in the summer of 2020. Neal was charged in April of this year with criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied dwelling. The charge is in connection with an incident on March 19 in the 1600 block of Haskell Avenue in which Neal is alleged to have fired a gun into a home with children inside.

Neal has maintained her innocence, saying that she was targeted by law enforcement because of her involvement in the 2020 protest to free accused murderer Rontarus Washington Jr. from jail and because she was often at odds with the police and the DA’s Office as she aggressively investigated her 17-year-old son’s shooting death in June of 2024.

A spokeswoman with the Lawrence Police Department denied the allegation that the police had targeted Neal or acted improperly.

“Our investigators have compiled ample evidence to support the arrest and will detail all of it in court,” police spokeswoman Laura McCabe said in an April email to the Journal-World.

Officers won’t get that opportunity, however, unless the case is refiled.

Prosecutor Adam Carey on Friday asked Judge Sally Pokorny to continue the felony gun case to a later date and to issue material witness warrants to the no-shows, but Neal’s attorney, Hatem Chahine, objected to that and requested a dismissal instead. Chahine noted that the state had already asked for — and been granted — one continuance related to witness availability.

Pokorny agreed with Chahine, saying that the case had been going on since April without any movement.

“My concern is we’re now at six months” from the date of filing, she said. Pokorny noted that a felony charge hovering indefinitely in this way kept a person’s life at an unfair standstill. Her dismissal was without prejudice, though, meaning the case could be filed again.

Neal’s arrest in the now-dismissed case came just weeks before a trial was set to begin for the man accused of killing Neal’s 17-year-old son. Isaiah Neal was shot multiple times in the back on June 13, 2024, near his home at 2406 Alabama St. The shooter in that case, Cir Allen Keith Glover, received a 10-year sentence for the murder, which Natasha Neal called a “slap in the face.”

Pokorny said that Neal still had five misdemeanor charges pending against her. Those charges, filed in July, include two counts of criminal trespass, two counts of battery and one count of criminal damage to property. The offense date for all them is June 13, 2024, the day of her son’s murder.