Reporter questions Price, is jailed

Man charged with willful disruption in W. Virginia capitol.

As Tom Price, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, headed to a meeting at the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston on Tuesday, a reporter from the Public News Service trailed after him in a hallway.

The reporter, Dan Heyman, wanted to ask about the health care legislation the House passed last week to replace the Affordable Care Act.

With his Android smartphone in hand to use as an audio recorder, Heyman said in an interview Wednesday, he reached over some of the staffff and security members surrounding Price.

Accordi ng to a n audi o recording Heyman provided, he asked whether domestic violence was going to be a pre-existing condition under the new legislation.

“Do you think that’s right, or not?” he called out.

He asked twice more and when there was no response, Heyman said: “You refuse to answer? Tell me no comment.”

After persisting in his questions for nearly a minute, Heyman was pulled to the side by offifficers of the West Virginia Division of Protective Services, also known as the Capitol Police, handcuffffffffffffed and charged with a misdemeanor count of willful disruption of governmental processes. He spent eight hours in a local jail before the news service posted $5,000 bail for his release.