The criminal charges against a NewsNation reporter have been dropped, a week after his arrest at an Ohio press conference.
NewsNation correspondent Evan Lambert was charged with criminal trespass and resisting arrest last Wednesday during an Ohio press conference with Gov. Mike DeWine about the train derailment in East Palestine. Authorities reportedly told Lambert to stop his live broadcast and was told to leave, but Lambert refused those orders.
“My office has reviewed the relevant video and documentary evidence, and is dismissing the charges against Evan Lambert as unsupported by sufficient evidence,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost wrote in a press release. “While journalists could conceivably be subject to criminal charges for trespassing in some situations, this incident is not one of them. The reporter was lawfully present at a press conference called by the governor of the state. His conduct was consistent with the purpose of the event and his role as a reporter.”
Body-camera footage released by the Ohio State Highway Patrol showed Maj. Gen. John Harris Jr., commander of the state’s national guard, talking with a camera operator before a state trooper motioned to stop the live shot. Police said Lambert was talking loudly while on the air from the back of the gym where DeWine was speaking at the same time.
Harris started to walk away before he turned around, confronted and pointed a finger at Lambert and then briefly pushed the reporter with one hand in the chest, the body-camera footage showed. Lambert was also pointing and talking to Harris. A state trooper then stepped in between the two and moved away the commander, the footage showed.
Harris later told police the reporter was coming at him in an aggressive manner and he felt threatened.
“I instinctively put my hands on his chest to keep him from bumping into me, which I felt was inevitable if I had not protected myself,” Harris said in a statement made to investigators and provided by his office. He declined Thursday to comment beyond his statements to police.
Lambert said after the arrest that he was trying to do his job.
“Regardless of the intent, arresting a journalist reporting at a press conference is a serious matter,” Yost said. “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 that tensions were running high in the days following the derailment.
After the arrest, DeWine said he didn’t authorize the arrest and called for the charges to be dropped on Tuesday.
“I have the same opinion that I had the first day,” DeWine said. “It seems to me that everyone would be better off if the [Ohio] attorney general could see fit to not proceed with any kind of prosecution.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
