A prominent Mobile lawyer did not commit criminal contempt when she served a subpoena to another attorney during a break in a murder trial last year, an Alabama appeals court ruled Friday.

Christine Hernandez was held in contempt for sending a process server and bail bondsman to deliver the subpoena Nov. 18 at the Mobile County Courthouse to attorney Chase Dearman, who was representing a murder defendant at the time the subpoena was served.

On Friday, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals sided with Hernandez, finding there was “no evidence” to suggest Hernandez “committed constructive criminal contempt” because the subpoena wasn’t served when court was in session.

The appeals court ordered Mobile County Circuit Court Judge Wesley Pipes to vacate the contempt citation and reverse the $100 fine he gave Hernandez, who famously represented the lesbian couple that successfully challenged Alabama’s same-sex marriage law.

Pipes found Dearman was served in that way “intentionally and for no good reason,” adding that jurors were wearing blue stickers that identified them as being on the panel and that the server could not have be unaware.

“There can be no conclusion other than [the process server] intentionally served the subpoena in front of them, and even if he did not intend to prejudice [the murder defendant], his actions threatened to do exactly that and put the trial directly in jeopardy.”

Dearman moved for a mistrial in his client’s case because the jury could be “confused, question his ethics or believe he was under some sort of criminal charge,” according to court records.