Iowa journalist is acquitted in rare trial of a journalist
DES MOINES, Iowa –Andrea Sahouri, the Iowa journalist who was arrested as she reported on racial justice protests last summer, was found not guilty in a case that drew widespread condemnation from journalism and free press organizations.
Sahouri, a Des Moines Register reporter, was one of just a handful of journalists whose charges stemming from coverage of the protests in the wake of George Floyd’s killing were not thrown out. More than 120 reporters were arrested or detained in 2020, but in most cases, prosecutors dropped the charges.
The Des Moines Register is owned by Gannett, the same parent company as USA TODAY.
Sahouri was acquitted on Wednesday of both misdemeanor charges against her, failure to disperse and interference with official acts. Both carried up to 30 days in jail.
Sahouri, who covers public safety in Des Moines, was on assignment May 31 at a protest that had gathered at Merle Hay Mall. Sahouri was with her then-boyfriend, Spenser Robnett, who was there for her safety while covering the demonstration.
Robnett also was acquitted of both charges.
The six-person jury spent less than two hours deliberating. After the verdict was read aloud, Sahouri and Robnett exchanged embraces with their attorneys and parents.
Judge Lawrence McLellan dismissed the court, telling prosecutors, “You tried a good case, and the jury has spoken.”
Sahouri tweeted after the verdict, sharing two images of her in police custody and the caption, “Acquitted.”
In a company email, Maribel Perez Wadsworth, president and publisher of USA TODAY who oversees the news division of Gannett, called the verdict “an important victory for the First Amendment and for journalism.”
In the same email, Sahouri thanked not only her family, friends and colleagues but also the support she’s received from around the world.
“I’m thankful to the jury for doing the right thing. Their decision upholds freedom of the press and justice in our democracy,” Sahouri said.
In an interview with the Register, Sahouri said the charges and trial have been a heavy burden for the past 10 months.
“It’s really a tough feeling to go through this trial and have the State of Iowa trying to bring you down and trying to make you seem like you’re doing something wrong when you’re really just doing your job,” she said.
Sahouri testified Tuesday that she was a journalist on an assignment determined to cover the historic protests unfolding in Des Moines. She said she immediately identified herself as a reporter when first approached by the officer who arrested her. But she was pepper-sprayed and handcuffed after the officer told her, “That’s not what I asked.”
“It’s important for journalists to be on the scene and document what’s happening,” Sahouri said during her testimony. “Protests erupted not just across the country but all over the world. I felt like I was playing a role in that. I know we are a small city, but I felt like I was playing a role in that.”
Polk County Attorney John Sarcone told USA TODAY that his office believed they had sufficient evidence to establish guilt but the jury decided otherwise.
He dismissed any notion that Sahouri’s prosecution was targeted due to her job as a journalist or at the Des Moines Register.
“No one is above the law. No one can violate the law, even her own boss said that,” Sarcone said, referencing testimony from Register Executive Editor Carol Hunter. “This is not about reporting or anything else from my perspective,” Sarcone said.
During the trial, prosecutors attempted to cast the case narrowly, saying Sahouri’s status as a journalist was not relevant to whether she committed the acts. They argued that Sahouri and Robnett heard dispersal orders an hour and a half before their arrests, failed to leave the area and tried to pull away from the officer arresting Sahouri.
The defense, however, said the orders before the arrests sent conflicting messages during a chaotic scene. When the arrests occurred, Sahouri, Robnett and another then-Des Moines Register reporter, who was with them but not arrested, were moving away from a crowd in which police had just deployed tear gas. And the claim that Sahouri and Robnett interfered with her arrest didn’t add up to other testimony and photo and video from the scene, the defense argued.
The officer who arrested Sahouri did not activate his body camera, but another officer did capture video in the moments after her arrest. That video showed Sahouri repeatedly telling officers she was on assignment as she pleaded for help.
“This is my job. This is my job,” Sahouri said. “I’m just doing my job. … I was sent here. … I’m a journalist.”
According to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Sahouri was one of just over a dozen reporters still facing charges for their arrests during the summer protests. In most cases, police departments and prosecutors’ offices never fully pursued charges against a journalist covering a demonstration.
Within the USA TODAY Network, six journalists including Sahouri were arrested during the protests. However, only Sahouri faced charges. In the other cases, charges were dropped after it became clear the reporter was there to cover the scene, Wadsworth said.
David Ardia, a law professor and codirector at the University of North Carolina’s Center for Media Law and Policy, told USA TODAY he was relieved but not surprised by the jury’s verdict.
“When the facts were all presented to them, they clearly concluded that a journalist doing her job in this situation did not violate the law,” Ardia said.
Going to trial in the first place “has a chilling effect” for journalists across the country, he said. Prosecutors have discretion about in which cases to pursue charges, and nothing presented during the trial gave any indication as to why the prosecutors continued after learning Sahouri was a journalist, Ardia said.
“I’m thankful to the jury for doing the right thing. Their decision upholds freedom of the press and justice in our democracy.” Andrea Sahouri Des Moines Register