DA agrees to drop criminal charges against most protesters; some, however, insist on criminal trials

Most of the protesters arrested at Occupy Boston early this morning walked out of Boston Municipal Court today after paying $50 fines. However, eight protesters insisted on criminal trials, while 4 others will get criminal trials because of past criminal records, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office says.

The DA's office reached agreement with 49 protesters to drop criminal charges in exchange for $50 fines, which means they walked out of court with no criminal record. A judge dropped charges against an additional 14 protesters in exchange for a similar payment and over prosecutors' objections, the DA's office says.

This is the same procedure the DA's office used to resolve the arrests of 24 people at an unrelated protest against Bank of America last week.

However, Robert Birmingham, 22, of Dorchester, Philip Darnawsky, 34, of Cambridge, Julian Taylor Evans, 28, of Brookline, Kamal Ghammace-Nansour, 21, of Oakland, CA, Christopher Hickman, 23, of Haverhill, Anthony Morris, 24, of Dorchester, Theodore Rhodes Murphy, 18, of the Back Bay and Khury Peterson-Smith, 29, of Dorchester, decided to fight the charges in a criminal trial, the DA's office says.

Another four defendants will have to make their cases in a criminal trial because of their past criminal records, the DA's office says.