Keith Silver being arrested on April 18.

A D.C. judge ruled yesterday that Mayor Vince Gray won’t have to testify at the trial of a resident arrested at a D.C. voting rights protest earlier this year.

Keith Silver, a Ward 6 ANC Commissioner who was arrested on April 18 during a demonstration on Capitol Hill, had requested in July that Gray, himself arrested only days before Silver, appear at his trial as a witness. Lawyers from the office of the D.C. Attorney General objected, fearing that having Gray appear would open him up to countless frivolous subpoenas.

Judge Frederick Sullivan sided with the city and scheduled Silver’s trial for November 2, where he will face a single charge of “failure to obey a lawful order.” Eight other D.C. voting rights protestors are set to face trial on Monday, September 19 for their own arrests at the April 11 demonstration by Capitol Hill.