A man and woman arrested on the Commons, amid claims that police used excessive force. Some called the incident a sign of racial bias.

Once charges were dismissed, the police union spoke to city lawmakers publicly. It started with an incident caught on an Ithaca police officer's body camera last April. An officer allegedly witnessed a man, Cadji Ferguson, punching another man.

The footage then shows a woman, Rose De Groat, hitting an officer multiple times after police intervened. "The officers tried to control the situation as quickly as possible and as best as possible, under circumstances that are difficult, dealing with a lot of unknowns that are unfolding in front of them," said Police Chief Dennis Naylor.

Ferguson was tased by officers. He and De Groat were both arrested and charged. That led to an outcry from many in the community.

"I got a lot of letters, I got a lot of e-mails, phone calls from various perspectives," said District Attorney Michael Van Houten.

While a grand jury indicted De Groat on felony charges, the District Attorney ultimately decided to ask for dismissal. He hoped restorative justice might be an option; bringing everyone involved in the case together to come to an understanding.

"If the people involved feel good about it, or they're engaged and they feel like something has been accomplished and other community members are mad because no one went to jail, I'm ok with that because identifying underlying issues and trying to be more holistic about criminal justice is more conducive to real community safety," said Van Houten.

But the district attorney said that didn't work as intended, because he said the entire case was based on a false claim that the defendants were reacting to a sexual assault.

"Fundamentally when the people going into mediation are lying about a basic fact, how can you trust them to tell the truth about anything else?"

The district attorney said he's not sure if justice was ultimately served. But both he and the police chief said they're willing to keep talking with the community to learn from the experience.