Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced on Wednesday that his office is dropping the charges against a NewsNation reporter, who law enforcement arrested, while covering the railway crash in East Palestine.
Evan Lambert, a Washington DC-based correspondent with NewsNation, was thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and arrested for trespassing last week while covering Governor Mike DeWine‘s public press conference regarding the derailing of a train transporting hazardous materials. Local prosecutors filed misdemeanor criminal trespassing and resisting arrest charges against Lambert, but they requested that Yost’s office take over the case from there due to the complex nature of the parties involved.
According to Yost, his office reviewed the relevant video and documentary evidence, and is dismissing the charges against Lambert as unsupported by sufficient evidence. He added that Lambert legally attended a public press conference that the state’s governor convened.
“While journalists could conceivably be subject to criminal charges for trespassing in some situations, this incident is not one of them. The reporter was lawfully present at a press conference called by the Governor of the state. His conduct was consistent with the purpose of the event and his role as a reporter,” Yost said.
Lambert was in East Palestine when DeWine declared that evacuees may begin to return to the area. During NewsNation’s “Rush Hour,” Lambert was providing a live report when law enforcement officials at the press conference reportedly warned him to keep quiet because DeWine was speaking.
Originally scheduled at 3:00 p.m. ET, the news conference in East Palestine did not begin until around 5 o’clock. DeWine finally started talking, just as Lambert was about to go live on NewsNation.
After completing the live report, the National Guard Adjutant General Major General John Harris and two highway patrolmen attempted to stop Lambert because he was “too loud,” according to a statement released by the East Palestine Police Department on February 8th. The highway patrol’s body camera film shows Harris pushing Lambert after what appears to be an altercation. Police claimed that Harris felt threatened, although the video does not capture the incident that led to the argument. Law enforcement then threw Lambert onto the ground and put him into handcuffs.
Law enforcement released Lambert from the Columbiana County Jail after detaining him for five hours.
After police had taken Lambert into custody, DeWine said he did not personally order the arrest.
The governor said in a statement to news outlets that he didn’t see the incident, but emphasized that “he has always respected the media’s right to report live before, during, and after his press briefs, and the interruption to the reporter’s broadcast should not have taken place.”
DeWine reiterated in a press conference on Tuesday that he did not authorize the arrest and that he hoped the attorney general’s office would drop the charges. He claimed that Harris likely regrets his actions.
“I have the same opinion that I had the first day, and that is I would hope that charges would be dropped. I think that would be the best thing. Whatever happened after the general walked away, the reality is that the reporter should not have been stopped, period,” DeWine said.
Yost noted that tensions were high in the days following the derailment and that it seemed as though local officials were following the National Guard’s example.
“Regardless of the intent, arresting a journalist reporting at a press conference is a serious matter. Ohio protects a free press under its constitution, and state officials should remember to exercise a heightened level of restraint in using arrest powers,” Yost said.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Dave Yost” by Dave Yost.
