Ohio train derailment: Journalist arrested at press conference won’t face charges
Rachel Schilke
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The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has dropped the charges against a NewsNation reporter who was arrested at a press conference in which Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) was providing an update on the train that derailed last week in East Palestine, Ohio.
NewsNation reporter Evan Lambert was arrested after arguing with police over his right to broadcast during the press briefing on the Ohio train derailment, which resulted in a release of dangerous chemical toxins into the air and the deaths of animals near the crash site.
JOURNALIST ARRESTED AT OHIO GOVERNOR’S PRESS CONFERENCE
“My office has reviewed the relevant video and documentary evidence and is dismissing the charges against Evan Lambert as unsupported by sufficient evidence,” Attorney General David Yost said, per CBS News. “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 added.
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Lambert faced charges of disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing, something NewsNation protested as a violation of its reporter’s First Amendment rights.
In a statement, Lambert thanked all of the people who supported him in some way, whether retweeting the video or messaging him words of encouragement.
“It is by design that reporters aren’t meant to become the story. In my case, I truly did not choose this, and anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I do not want nor relish in any of this extra attention,” Lambert said. “To all who have shared the video of the harassment, then excessive force, then unjust and illegal arrest, I thank you.”
The video showed police wrestling Lambert to the ground before handcuffing him and escorting him to a police car. He was released from jail later that night at about 10:18.
“I’m still processing what was a traumatic event for me, in the context of a time where we are hyper aware of how frequently some police interactions with people of color can end in much worse circumstances,” Lambert said. “That is not lost on me.”
He emphasized that, as a journalist who’s spent a decade covering crime and courts, he has “great respect” for police officers “who do their job each day with integrity, civil rights, justice, and safety at the core of their mission.”
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DeWine had condemned the arrest and said he had no part in it.
“It has always been my practice that if I’m doing a press conference, someone wants to report out there and they want to be talking back to the people back on channel, whatever, they have every right to do that,” the governor said. “If someone was stopped from doing that or told they could not do that, that was wrong. It was nothing that I authorized.”