In my state (and I believe all states) a bike = car. I, as a cyclist, am expected to follow all of the same rules of the road a car is, including stopping at red lights and stop signs.
I have no problem with this. This guy sounds like a major asshole. "Too committed" to stop at a red light? No. Just no.
I'm basing my opinion on the circumstances as described in the article and have no idea if there's a "real story", but going off the info in the article charging the cyclist was the way to go. A pedestrian in a crosswalk is going to have the right of way no matter how fast you claim you were riding, and if he really was blowing through stop signs leading up to the intersection he apparently didn't think that traffic laws applied to him.