About 75 NIU students filled a Sycamore courtroom Tuesday as a judge reviewed the case in which they are charged with resisting a peace officer and obstructing a highway.

The charges resulted from an April 13 sit-in on Lincoln Highway, but defense attorneys called the first charge unsubstantial and said they will file a motion to dismiss it.

“I don’t think what our people (protestors) did was a crime. At worst, they violated a traffic code,” said Larry Schlam, an NIU law professor and defense attorney for five of the demonstrators.

Schlam argued that the demonstration was a peaceful one. “There was no violence, no windows broken, no one was hurt,” he said.

DeKalb Circuit Court Judge Douglas Engel adjourned the court for a half-hour recess while all attorneys conferred. The conference produced a decision by the defense attorneys to file a motion to dismiss the “resisting a peace officer” charge.

Engel said attorneys have two weeks to file the motion and the state’s attorney’s office will have one week to counteract the motion if it chooses.

Don Henderson, Director of Students’ Legal Assistance and defense attorney for 65 of the demonstrators, said he does not believe the charge accurately describes the action of the demonstrators.

It has not yet been determined whether all the protestors will be tried together or individually. Henderson said the next step will be the filed motion.

At a status review June 14, Engel dismissed a charge of “mob action,” because the state could not prove that any violence occurred. The state then added the now-questioned charge of resisting a peace officer.

The next status review is set for August 12 at 1:30 p.m. in the DeKalb County Courthouse, 133 W. State St., Sycamore.