Six cars suggests complicity and preplanning...The States Attorney isn't going to like this ... it makes them look stupid to support these citations ... especially with the shifting reasoning as Zoo pointed out. Also a trespassing on a public sidewalk charge makes the state look incompetent and wildly authoritarian.
If the States Attorney was involved, there would have been a much more cogent argument from local law enforcement from the beginning. If local law enforcement also made this decision on their own, they also would have had a better plan of action. In addition, I think there would have been an effort to give the PP crew a heads up with what reasoning they were applying.
When the Chief claimed the complaint wasn't "called in", it doesn't mean that a legislator or legislator's aide didn't speak directly to some of the officers on site. They moved quickly without a clear plan. The Chief is now scrambling to legitimize their actions, support his men, and not out whomever made the complaint (and in general, this is a good practice, except when law enforcement is being used as a tool to further a political viewpoint).
If this gets any court time (meaning more media coverage), the state government and capital police are going to look pretty bad.