IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa journalist will face trial on Monday for charges stemming from her coverage of a protest against racial injustice, a case prosecutors have pursued despite international condemnation of defenders of the free press, who say she was just doing her job. .
The case of Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri, who was sprayed with pepper spray and arrested while reporting on a clash between protesters and the police, will highlight an aggressive response by Iowa officials against those who organized and participated in protests that broke out in the last summer and occasionally became violent.
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Sahouri and her ex-boyfriend are accused of omission of dispersion and interference in official acts, misdemeanors that can result in fines and up to 30 days in prison. They face a two-day trial at Drake University, in what the US Press Freedom Tracker says may be the first for an active journalist across the country since 2018.
The Sahouri newspaper, the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and Amnesty International are among the advocates of the press who have demanded that Polk County drop the charges, which they call abuse of power that violates the First Amendment to the Constitution.
“This is outrageous. Reporting in a protest scene as an active member of the media is not a crime. It is a right that must be protected,” said Amnesty International.
Police officers are shown arresting Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri after a protest by the Black Lives Matter she was covering on May 31, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa, was dispersed by tear gas. (Photo courtesy of Katie Akin via AP)
But Des Moines police and prosecutor John Sarcone’s office argue that Sahouri was not using press credentials and appeared to be a participant in an illegal assembly, saying that journalists do not have a free pass to ignore dispersion orders. The only order identified in court documents was issued about 90 minutes before the arrest.
At a pre-trial hearing on Friday, prosecutor Bradley Kinkade argued that Sahouri’s job as a reporter “is irrelevant to his charges.”
“This is a standard misdemeanor trial,” he said.
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Sahouri, recently honored by the Iowa Newspaper Association as one of the best young reporters in the state, continued to cover public safety as the charges grew.
Although 126 journalists were arrested or detained during the 2020 riots, most were not charged or had their charges dropped, says the Press Freedom Tracker. Fourteen still face charges.
The determination to sue Sahouri has baffled observers, who note that Iowa courts have a backlog of crime cases due to the coronavirus pandemic. Critics say the authorities appear to be seeking a conviction to justify a policeman’s decision to unnecessarily use force against a reporter known for building trust with crime victims and underrepresented communities.
“It’s like someone with a hand on a cookie tin: they can’t admit they made a mistake,” said Des Moines civil rights lawyer Glen Downey, who is not involved in the Sahouri case. “The case is important for the journalistic aspect, but it is also emblematic of how all the protesters are treating”.
A press badge for Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri shows the photo of his arrest on May 31, 2020 while covering a Black Lives Matter protest. (Photo courtesy of Andrea Sahouri via AP)
Sahouri, 25, was covering a Black Lives Matter protest at the Merle Hay mall when tension grew between the participants and the police. Her then boyfriend, Spenser Robnett, accompanied her for security reasons.
Protesters vandalized a Target store, smashed windows, blocked an intersection and threw water bottles and stones at police officers in riot suits.
Sahouri covered the protest live on Twitter, reporting that police raided a shoe store with rifles and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Sahouri said she was running out of gas when Robnett was hit by a projectile and she stopped briefly to see how he was doing before continuing around the corner from a Verizon store. That’s when Officer Luke Wilson came over, threw pepper spray on her face and pinned her up with zipper ties, she says.
Sahouri repeatedly identified himself as a journalist, but was nevertheless taken to prison. Is it over there reported his prison live in the back of a police van.
Wilson claimed that he did not know that Sahouri was a reporter until he arrested her and Robnett intervened, saying that she worked for the Register and tried to remove her. Wilson says he was unable to activate his body camera.
Judge Lawrence McLellan on Friday ordered prosecutors to provide training materials with body cameras for Sahouri’s defense, which he said should have been delivered in response to a previous court order.
The defense argues that Wilson could and should have retrieved the video from prison after the fact, but refused to do so, potentially to avoid embarrassment. McLellan said he will decide later whether to instruct the jurors that the evidence has been destroyed.
Des Moines Register executive editor Carol Hunter said Sahouri’s lack of press credentials, which she left in her car, is a “false trail” because the police immediately knew she was a journalist and there is no need for a press badge to enjoy constitutional protections. Reporters should be free to witness the protests and hold the participants and the police accountable, Hunter said.
“Freedom of the press depends on collecting news,” she said. “This is really an attack on a fundamental part of the ability to get the news out to people.”
The newspaper is funding Sahouri’s defense, led by former United States attorney Nick Klinefeldt.
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Prosecutors obtained and can try to show jurors text messages between Sahouri and the protest leader, Matè Muhammad, a week after his arrest. His lawyers say the texts are irrelevant and show the routine of collecting facts from a reporter with a source.
Muhammad, who has been battling the charges stemming from the protests, said he did not know Sahouri when she was arrested, but the two have developed a professional relationship. He called her “extremely diligent” in verifying information and gathering different perspectives.
“We like to work with her not because we see her as an activist or on our side,” he said, “but because we consider her to be fair.”