COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Colorado Springs jury acquitted Douglas Bruce on a trespassing charge Tuesday.

He was charged after an incident in August when he was trying to get petitions signed at a Costco store.

The jury took about three hours to find Bruce and fellow anti-tax activist Doug Stinehagen not guilty of the misdemeanor charge.

"They thought they could get away with drawing a line through the first amendment, therefore it wouldn't apply in Colorado Springs," Bruce said.

Bruce asked the jury to acquit him and defend his rights to petition as a way to limit government. He said he was initially slightly concerned that the verdict might not go his way.

"I was concerned that there was someone that disliked Doug Bruce enough that they would violate their oath and get on the jury," he said.

Steinhagen also said he thought the trial was a vendetta.

"We weren't guilty from the beginning and this trial should never have taken place," he said.

Prosecutors had argued that Bruce and Stinehagen should not be allowed to trample a private property owners' rights in order to assert their own. Costco officials previously had complained about Bruce petitioning at the store.

The men were collecting signatures for what would become Issue 300 on the November ballot.

Members of the jury had one major issue with a letter that Bruce had gotten from Costco regarding the incident but decided that Costco didn't follow through with asking Bruce and Steinhagen to leave, so they were innocent of trespassing.