Police must honor press freedom by letting journalists do their jobs

A woman makes a peace sign before a line of police preparing to advance upon demonstrators after a rally by President Donald Trump at the Phoenix Convention Center on Aug. 22, 2017. (Photo by David McNew/ Getty Images)

Last week, for the second time in recent years, a group of celebratory friends and free-press advocates gathered on my lawn to toast a victory after a wrongful detention by Des Moines police.

Ted Nieters, a freelance photojournalist, who had covered Middle East wars and conflicts without interference , was arrested covering a 2020 Des Moines protest rally over George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer.

It happened the night of June 1, after police had issued orders for protesters to disperse from the Capitol. But Nieters had already left on foot, and was standing alone outside the downtown Embassy Suites Hotel some three-quarters of a mile away.  Officer Brandon Holtan charged, encircled him from behind, pepper-sprayed his eyes, zip-tied his hands and took him to the ground. He did so despite Nieters repeatedly telling him that he was with the press, and where to find his press card.

But Holtan found it and still arrested him. In the midst of the COVID pandemic, Nieters spent the night in a crowded Polk County jail cell sitting on the ground with some 20 others.

No charges were subsequently pursued against Nieters, who filed a federal lawsuit against the city. The trial opened on Monday. Brian Powers, a  former Des Moines Register colleague of mine who had witnessed and photographed the arrest, gave crucial testimony backing Nieters’ contention that he was simply standing there with his hands in the air and cameras visible when the officer charged him.

As one who knows Nieters well, had written about his arrest for the Register and saw the impact it had on him, I was also a witness. I testified that his wounds went deeper than the painful wrist injury from the zip ties, the eye burn from the pepper spray, and the knee damage. The arrest left him distrustful and disillusioned for being treated like a criminal just for doing his job. It cost him a sense of security on his home turf.

Nieters’ case went to the jurors Wednesday after three days of testimony. But a mere hour into deliberations, they were called back and told the city of Des Moines had offered a $100,000 settlement. Nieters accepted it on condition it would come with a statement acknowledging the importance of accommodating a free press.

The evidence supporting Nieters’ case was clearly so damning that they sought to cut their losses. Nieters’ attorney, Gina Messamer, laid out point by point how the officer wrongly claimed Nieters had ignored dispersal orders and was running away with a crowd police were pursuing – even though it went in an entirely different location.

Holtan failed to activate his body camera even after the fact, when video documenting what happened still could have been retrieved. And he didn’t file a report on Nieters’ arrest for 19 days. That was four days after Nieters filed a complaint with the department’s internal affairs division.  As video showed, and Messamer told the jury, once Holtan set eyes on him, he charged at Ted “like a bull in a china shop.”

That’s the sort of conduct you’d expect in a rogue state – not a U.S. one whose motto is “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”

Testimony from one of Holtan’s defense witnesses not only harmed his case but makes you wonder about the city’s use of taxpayer funds. Lt. Anthony Joseph DiCara of the Baltimore County Police Department, who was flown in as an expert on officer conduct, training and deescalation, acknowledged he has been paid close to $30,000 for testifying in Des Moines officer cases – which invariably conclude the officer acted right. That’s though, as Messamer told the jury, “He didn’t even read the criminal case.”

History repeats itself. Back in 2021, it was Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri’s acquittal we were celebrating. She’d been criminally charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts after a different Des Moines police officer claimed she’d ignored orders to leave a Merle Hay Mall protest site the previous May. As Sahouri testified at her trial, she had also raised her hands “and said, ‘I’m press. I’m press,’ ” but was still grabbed, pepper-sprayed and loaded into a police van.

The lack of criminal charge or conviction in both cases shows Nieters and Sahouri were guilty of nothing more than doing their jobs.

They highlight what’s at stake when the people entrusted with gathering and recording the facts for the public become the targets, and the ones entrusted with pursuing the bad guys instead pursue protesters, the press, and ultimately the Constitution.

Such officer overreach can fly under the radar. And it’s questionable, when higher-ups see evidence of it, how seriously they take it. Would we even know unless a victim has the gumption to sue, and city taxpayers end up paying the damages?

This should unsettle everyone. The settlement comes at a transitional time for Des Moines police. With the upcoming retirement of its chief, a new police chief will soon be hired. Some members of the public are appealing to the City Council to appoint someone who could usher in badly needed changes, including more focus on deescalation training and appointment of a long-sought civilian review board.

Now is the time to speak up and urge Des Moines leaders to finally do what’s needed, scrap the us-against-them mindset and come together for what’s right.

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