Journalist acquitted in Iowa case seen as attack on press

[Eugene]

Earlier DU thread: Arrested journalist pleaded with officer: 'This is my job' (update acquitted)

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Source: Associated Press

Journalist acquitted in Iowa case seen as attack on press

By RYAN J. FOLEY
March 10, 2021

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa jury on Wednesday acquitted a journalist who was pepper-sprayed and arrested by police while covering a protest, in a case that critics have derided as an attack on press freedoms and an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.

After deliberating for less than two hours, the jury found Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri and her ex-boyfriend Spenser Robnett not guilty on misdemeanor charges of failure to disperse and interference with official acts.

The Des Moines verdict is an embarrassing outcome for the office of Polk County Attorney John Sarcone, which pursued the charges despite widespread condemnation from advocates for a free press and human rights.

Those advocates, ranging from Sahouri’s bosses at the Register to Amnesty International, argued that Sahouri was wrongly arrested while doing her job covering racial injustice protests in Des Moines last May.

More than 100 groups called for the dismissal of charges last summer, but prosecutors aggressively pursued them, arguing that Sahouri and Robnett didn’t comply with police orders to leave the chaotic scene outside of a mall and interfered with the officer who arrested Sahouri.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/andrea-sahouri-acquitted-cd95fea66c260ec7990a2ccda06a6ca7


Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri, facing, hugs her mother, Muna Tareh-Sahouri, after being found not-guilty at the conclusion of her trial at the Drake University Legal Clinic, Wednesday, March 10, 2021, in Des Moines, Iowa. An Iowa jury acquitted Andrea Sahouri, who was pepper-sprayed and arrested by police in the summer of 2020 while covering a protest in a case that critics have derided as an attack on press freedom and an abuse of prosecutorial discretion. (Kelsey Kremer/The Des Moines Register via AP, Pool)

[Bev54]

1. As it should be! n/t