Prosecutors in Utah have dropped a criminal case against a college student who grew up in San Diego after he was charged last month with making a terror threat in connection with a video he made following Charlie Kirk’s shooting death.

County prosecutors in the Park City area had charged Blake Francis Rogers, a 20-year-old who grew up in Scripps Ranch, with making a threat of terrorism that caused an emergency agency to act. Despite the charge being a misdemeanor, it drew national news coverage because of its connection to the Sept. 10 killing of Kirk, a conservative media figure and political organizer, at Utah Valley University.

Prosecutors moved last week to dismiss the case, writing in a motion that a dismissal would be “in the interest of justice,” a generic phrase that prosecutors often use when seeking to drop charges against a defendant. Prosecutors in Utah’s Summit County declined to comment Friday on their specific reasons for dropping the case.

A judge granted the motion Monday, dismissing the charge without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could re-file a case in the future.

“I want to express my sincerest gratitude to everyone who has stood by me during this incredibly difficult time,” Rogers told the Union-Tribune in a statement. “Those who know me personally understand that this was a stupid edgy joke made by a naïve kid. I deeply regret my actions and have learned an important lesson about digital responsibility. I’m grateful that the case has been dismissed and look forward to moving on and putting this experience behind me.”

Sheriff’s deputies in Summit County, a mountainous region east of Salt Lake City, arrested Rogers on Sept. 16 at his family’s home in Park City, about an hour northeast from the campus where Kirk was fatally shot. Rogers attends college in Pennsylvania but was visiting family in Utah, where he moved while he was in high school.

According to CBS News, Rogers had posted a 70-second video on YouTube in the days following Kirk’s death in which he said in part: “I am now beginning my odyssey to Utah Valley University, to fulfill my lifelong duty, of finally killing woke. If you are receiving this video, it means that I did not make it back on this trip, and I was defeated by my mortal enemy, the woke mind virus at Utah Valley University, where Charlie Kirk was assassinated.”

Andrew Young, a San Diego-based attorney who represented Rogers, said the video was satirical in nature.

“The video was intended as an inside joke to a few select friends,” Young, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego, said in a statement. “Because of the size of the file, it was posted to a private link on YouTube. Even though it wasn’t disseminated publicly, YouTube’s threat algorithm picked it up and reported it to law enforcement which led to Blake’s arrest.”

In a news release at the time of the arrest, a sheriff’s spokesperson in Park City said his office had been alerted to the video by the FBI.

“Obviously law enforcement needed to investigate it but I do not believe he should have been charged,” Young said in his statement. “The joke did not target a specific person or group. He targeted the ‘woke mind virus,’ and it contained several tongue-in-cheek references to pop culture.”

Young also questioned why “a misdemeanor charge was pushed as a national news story.” Sgt. Skyler Talbot from the Summit County Sheriff’s Office declined to discuss the dismissal of the case Friday, citing the potential for charges to be re-filed, but said his office issued a press release about the arrest only after dozens of media outlets nationwide had inquired.

Young said that “prosecutors recognized the case lacked merit and faced serious constitutional issues.” He added: “Making a bad joke is still not a crime here.”

Rogers was released from custody on bail shortly after his arrest but remained on pretrial supervision with a GPS ankle monitor until the case was dismissed. He is now facing potential discipline at his university.