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While the state charges against several people arrested in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Worcester were dropped, it appears the one person charged in federal court plans to plead guilty, records show.

A federal grand jury, in October, indicted 19-year-old Vincent Eovacious on charges of civil disorder and possessing a Molotov cocktail. He was the only person federally charged in the aftermath of the summer protests.

Eovacious was one ofseveral people arrested the night of the June 1 protests.

This month, Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. dropped the charges filed against 17 people arrested in the aftermath of the protests. Earlys office said the charges were dropped after a careful review of the evidence by its senior first assistant and first assistant in charge of appeals.

Early, in a statement, said he recused himself from the case due to a conflict of interest he has with Clark University. Some of the people who were arrested attended the Worcester college.

Each and every case was individually reviewed at length with every piece of video, written and testimonial evidence considered before any prosecutorial decisions were made in these matters. It was determined that these misdemeanor charges lacked sufficient evidence for trial, Earlys statement said.

Clark University hired a Worcester law firmto conduct an independent review of the events and the firm determined none of the four students who were arrested acted violentlyand police acted improperly when arresting the individuals.

Early noted none of the defendants were arrested for throwing bricks, rocks, concrete, bottles or anything else at officers. No cases involving an alleged assault on a Worcester police officer were dismissed, the district attorney added.

Early said one case resulted in a plea, another one is pending and a third was federally indicted, a reference to the case against Eovacious.

The decision by Earlys office has drawn the ire of Worcester police union officials.

Daniel Gilbert, president of the New England Police Benevolent Association Local 911, said in a strongly worded statement that Early will never receive another endorsement from the police union or another vote from him and his family. The police union head was ashamed and disappointed by the decision to drop the charges against the protesters, he added.

While the case against Eovacious is still pending in Worcester federal court, it appears he plans to plead guilty to the federal charges, according to paperwork on file in court.

In an order filed earlier this month, a federal judge notes Eovacious has separately reported that he intends to plead guilty to the indictment. Eovacious returns to federal court on April 13.

There have been past discussions of Eovacious entering a plea, records show.

According to federal court records, on the night of the protests - hours after a peaceful demonstration took place - police spotted Eovacious pacing on the rooftop of a building at 848 Main St. and yelled at the crowd below to kill the police.

Investigators said they saw Eovacious take a bottle out of a satchel. The bottle appeared to contain liquid, and police saw Eovacious try to stick a rag into the bottle while holding a silver object believed to be a lighter, federal records said.

Eovacious was eventually stopped by police and inside his satchel were three clear glass bottles with a slightly yellow liquid that smelled of gasoline, five white rags, one green lighter and one silver lighter, prosecutors said.

Eovacious said the liquid was gasoline, that he was with the anarchist group and was waiting for an opportunity, authorities said.

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After several state cases were dropped against 2020 Black Lives Matters protesters in Worcester, the one man - MassLive.com