Iowa reporter acquitted on charges from George Floyd protest
Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri was acquitted Wednesday in a trial stemming from her arrest while covering the George Floyd protests in May 2020.
Sahouri was charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts, both simple misdemeanors. Police claimed she remained in the area of the May 31 Des Moines protest despite orders to leave, and tried to pull away when a Des Moines police officer peppersprayed her and tried to arrest her.
After a three-day trial, the six-member jury returned a verdict of not guilty on both charges. Sahouri's then-boyfriend, Spenser Robnett, was arrested with her and faced the same charges, and he also was acquitted on both counts.
Her arrest — and the fact that the charges went to trial — were widely criticized as an attack on press freedom. The three day trial did not broadly discuss the First Amendment issues but Sahouri, a colleague who was with her and Register Executive Editor Carol Hunter all testified that Sahouri's presence in the protest area was the very core of what journalists do.
“I'd like to thank my family and friends, my Des Moines Register and Gannett colleagues and people around Des Moines, nationally and globally who have supported me for nearly a year after I was unjustly assaulted and arrested,” Sahouri said in a statement after the verdict.
In an interview, 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.
Before the trial, prosecutors had offered to drop the interference charge if Sahouri pleaded guilty to failure to disperse. She said it was important instead to take the case to trial and win a full acquittal.