The cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as other defendants, have settled with “Democracy Now!” journalists who sued over their arrests while they were covering the 2008 Republican National Convention.
As part of the settlement, the cities and the U.S. Secret Service will pay a total of $100,000, said Anjana Samant, a Center for Constitutional Rights attorney who represented journalists Amy Goodman, Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous.
The settlement was reached Thursday night and recorded Friday in U.S. District Court, Samant said. The cities agreed to pay a combined $90,000; the federal government agreed to pay $10,000.
The RNC host committee had an insurance policy that covered litigation arising from the convention, said St. Paul City Attorney Sara Grewing. That policy will pay the cities’ portion of the settlement.
The lawsuit alleged that police and other law enforcement officials violated the First Amendment rights of Goodman, her producers and other journalists by interfering with their right to gather news.
“Our clients – they’re journalists,” Samant said. “They really were committed and disturbed by the principle that they weren’t allowed to do their job. They’re looking for an actual change in how policing happens.”
As part of the settlement, the St. Paul police department will review and share its training policy to deal with the media that cover public demonstrations.
The journalists also want their arrest record expunged. The police departments didn’t object, Samant said.
“This resolution allows numerous government officials to concentrate on their jobs instead of preparing to defend this lawsuit,” said Jon Iverson, whose law firm, Iverson Reuvers, represented the municipal defendants.
The media training was in place before the convention, Iverson said. “Democracy Now!”, as well as other journalists, had the opportunity to participate in it then.
“They were certainly invited to the first training,” he said. “Thirteen thousand journalists were at the RNC, and they got it right.”
Within the next three months, the training policy is expected to be shared with the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press and the ACLU of Minnesota as part of the settlement, Samant said.
Goodman’s daily program airs on more than 750 radio and TV stations in North America.
Salazar and Kouddous were arrested Sept. 1, 2008, on the convention’s opening day, as riot police massed near the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul. The complaint said they were visibly wearing their press passes, holding their equipment and identified themselves as journalists.
The complaint said Salazar was videotaping as officers corralled journalists and bystanders in a parking lot.
It said the officers pushed her to the ground, knocking her video camera from her hands, and that officers slammed Kouddous against a wall after he shouted to officers arresting Salazar that she was a member of the press. It also said Goodman was arrested and pushed to the ground after she went to the arrest site and asked officers to release her producers.
Salazar was cited for felony riot, Kouddous was told he was facing a felony riot charge and Goodman was cited for interference with a peace officer and obstruction of the legal process.
Prosecutors eventually dropped all charges against all arrested journalists.
Brady Gervais can be reached at 651-228-5513. Follow Gervais on Twitter at twitter.com/bgervais and twitter.com/ppUsualSuspects.
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To see video of Amy Goodman’s arrest, go to TwinCities.com.