PRESS RELEASE · October 3, 2008 ·
Reporters Committee protests remaining charges against photographer in St. Paul
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press today protested to St. Paul officials over charges still pending against a freelance photographer who faces serious legal fallout for having been arrested on the job, despite a commitment by city authorities that charges would not be pursued against the dozens of journalists jailed or cited during the Republican National Convention.
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In a letter to St. Paul's mayor and city attorney, Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, questioned the still-pending charges against New York Post freelancer Jason Nicholas. He was swept up in a mass arrest on Sept. 1 along with several other journalists covering a protest, but obstruction charges against many other reporters have since been dropped.
Nicholas's legal situation is unique because he was on parole in New York after a 1990 manslaughter conviction. His arrest in St. Paul got back to the authorities in New York, where he was taken into custody when he returned home after the convention. He remains jailed on Riker's Island in New York.
In the letter, Dalglish told Mayor Chris Coleman and City Attorney John Choi that Nicholas shouldn't return to prison for having done nothing more than gather news -- "particularly when journalists on his left and his right were either released on the spot or had identical criminal charges dropped days later."
"It seems reasonable to me that he should benefit from the same review and dismissal of the protest-related charges against him afforded" the others, Dalglish wrote.
— Posted at 4:19 pm
Comments: (3)
Comment by Mark Loundy, Fri, Oct 3, 2008, 7:35pm
Wasn't one of the conditions of his parole that he not leave the state of New York?
Comment by Learn how to read the newspaper, Fri, Oct 3, 2008, 9:58pm
They announced that journalists (defined broadly) who were arrested for the misdemeanor crime of unlawful assembly would not be prosecuted. I'm sure he did something else besides unlawful assembly.
Comment by bt, Sat, Oct 4, 2008, 4:40am
Yes, he was on parole and did violate its terms by leaving New York, based on previous news reporting. That said, since when is that issue to be so much as even hinted, in his process with the news coverage and his arrest in St. Paul?
Talk about 'double jeopardy'. He ought to be left with a clean slate from his news coverage at the RNC, no two ways about it.
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