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An Iowa officer testified on Monday that he arrested a Des Moines Register reporter tasked with covering a Black Lives Matter protest last year after she did not leave the area after firing pepper shots .
Monks’ officer Luke Wilson spoke during the trial of journalist Andrea Sahouri and her then-boyfriend Spenser Robnett, saying he did not know at the time that Sahouri was a journalist, reported the Associated Press. Sahouri and Robnett face mischief charges for non-dispersal and interference with official acts.
The case against Sahouri has been the subject of close local, national and international scrutiny by journalists and human rights defenders, as she is said to be the first working journalist to stand trial in the United States since. 2018, according to the US Press Freedom Tracker.
In his testimony, Wilson said he responded outside the Merle Hay Mall on May 31, where protesters smashed windows and threw projectiles, such as rocks and water bottles, at officers. . He said he pulled pepper spray from a fogger to break up the crowd, but Sahouri stayed.
“Once I determined that she was not going to leave, I had to take action,” he said, according to the AP.
The officer said he grabbed Sahouri while firing pepper spray with his other hand, which hit her and Robnett, who returned to retrieve her. Wilson said he thought he had activated his body camera, but later found out he hadn’t.
Prosecutor Brecklyn Carey told jurors that footage shows police leading a crowd including Sahouri and Robnett, to disperse around 6:30 p.m. and shows 90 minutes later Robnett attempting to drive Sahouri away from the officer who arrested him, according to the AP.
But defense attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt argued that the 6:30 p.m. order targeted those blocking an intersection and that the couple followed those instructions.
He said Sahouri and Robnett ran when tear gas was fired an hour and a half later, and the officer grabbed her and sprayed pepper while she identified herself as being from the press, to which Wilson reportedly replied, “That’s not what I asked.
The Black Lives Matter protests last summer erupted nationwide after George Floyd was killed after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.
Sahouri was among more than 125 journalists detained or arrested during protests in 2020, most of whom have not been charged or have had their charges dismissed. Twelve other journalists remain on trial, the AP reported, citing the US Press Freedom Tracker.
If both are found guilty, they would face fines of several hundred dollars, a criminal record and, though unlikely, potentially up to 30 days in jail on each count.
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