IOWA CITY, Iowa – A jury acquitted a journalist who was pepper-sprayed and arrested while covering a Black Lives Matter protest in May. The jury also acquitted her former boyfriend, who was with her. In the three-day trial, Andrea Sahouri said she immediately identified herself as a Des Moines Register reporter to the arresting officer. Nonetheless she was sprayed with “extremely painful” pepper blasts, zip-tied and jailed, as was her boyfriend, who had accompanied her for safety reasons. The boyfriend was hit by a teargas canister.
Press badge and lanyard. Sahouri had left her press badge in her car, but a fellow reporter vouched for her as a reporter there to cover news.
Scarone. The verdict was an embarrassment for John Scarone, the Polk County attorney.
“Ever hear of the First Amendment, bub?”
Scarone pursued charges against Sahouri despite objections from Sahouri’s bosses at the Des Moines Register and 100-plus free press and civil liberties advocates, including Amnesty International and the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. Scarone’s assistants argued to the jury that Sahouri’s profession wasn’t a defense. Said Bradley Kinkade: “This is a standard misdemeanor trial.” Sahouri was the first working U.S. journalist to go on trial since 2018.