Des Moines Register asks police to investigate arrest of reporter Andrea Sahouri
William MorrisThe Des Moines Register is asking the Des Moines Police Department to investigate the circumstances surrounding the 2020 arrest of its reporter Andrea Sahouri.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the department's Office of Professional Standards, executive editor Carol Hunter asked for a probe into the actions of officer Luke Wilson, who pepper-sprayed and arrested Sahouri as she covered a racial justice protest May 31 near Merle Hay Mall. Sahouri was charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts, and was acquitted March 10 after a three-day jury trial.
Hunter asked the department to investigate three things:
- Whether pepper-spraying Sahouri in the face and upper arm constituted an assault and was an excessive use of force.
- Whether her arrest was unlawful and a civil rights violation.
- Whether Wilson was disciplined in any way for violating body camera policy.
In court last week, Wilson testified that he failed to turn on his body camera when he arrived on the scene. He also failed to notify a supervisor at the end of his shift that his camera had not recorded the arrest.
The IT department could have recovered the lost footage, court testimony revealed.
Des Moines police spokesperson Sgt. Paul Parizek said Tuesday the department does not comment on ongoing internal reviews.
While covering an at-times chaotic protest attended by hundreds of people, Sahouri testified that she and another Register reporter had withdrawn from officers deploying tear gas near the mall to the parking lot of the nearby Verizon store.
Wilson, part of a unit deployed to clear the area of protesters who were throwing objects at officers, was the first to round the corner of the building and encounter Sahouri.
He said at trial he arrested Sahouri for failing to follow a dispersal order from police. He also claimed that Sahouri and her then-boyfriend tried to pull away from him as he detained her. Both denied that accusation while testifying in their defense.
Sahouri said she had identified herself as a reporter several times during her arrest, and video footage played in court corroborated that.
"I put up my hands and said, ‘I'm press, I'm press,’ and he grabbed me and pepper-sprayed me and told me, 'that's not what I asked,'" she testified last week.
The Register's other reporter, Katie Akin, who was with Sahouri that night was not arrested.
Tuesday's complaint marks the second time the Register has requested the Des Moines Police Department review an incident involving one of its reporters.
On June 1, one day after Sahouri's arrest, Akin was covering a protest near the Iowa Capitol when officers began deploying tear gas and flashbangs to disperse the crowd. Akin can be heard on video telling officers she is leaving, while identifying herself as a reporter 17 times in about 30 seconds. An officer jogged ahead of her to pepper-spray her in the right eye and ear.
Police officials had agreed in June to review that encounter.
Akin, now a reporter at the Iowa Capital Dispatch, said she was interviewed by an officer shortly after the incident, but has not heard anything about a resolution.
Parizek said Tuesday that Akin's complaint remains open and under review.
►From the editor: What the trial of Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri shows about the importance of journalism
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.