Of the more than 1,050 defendants whose cases have gone to Superior Court, prosecutors charged around 20% with felonies: more serious offenses that include drug and gun crimes. The remaining 80% of the cases were misdemeanors, warrants, traffic offenses or prosecutors dropping the case.

Attorneys say prosecutors decide not to pursue a case — a move known as "no papering" — for a range of reasons, including weak evidence, a questionable search or finding that the alleged offense is too minor to merit the time and expense of pursuing it.

The second-most-common charge among these cases is assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers. Some of those cases involve violence. In one instance, court papers say the defendant struck a federal agent with his car while fleeing an attempted arrest at a gas station. Several of these cases, however, involve contact with officers that falls far short of that. One defendant, for example, Sean Charles Dunn, threw a sub sandwich at a federal agent, hitting the officer in the chest.

In another case, the defendant, Scott Pichon, allegedly spit on two South Carolina National Guard troops while riding past them on a scooter outside D.C.'s Union Station.