WBA NewsroomSeptember 6, 2017 — West Virginia’s Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney has dropped the charge against Public News Service Reporter Dan Heyman stemming from his arrest May 9, 2017.
Heyman was facing six months of jail time after moving through a crowd to ask the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price a question about the impact of health care reform on survivors of domestic violence. Unbeknownst to Heyman at the time, the crowd included White House advisor Kellyanne Conway and her Secret Service detail. Conway was a late addition to the listening tour.
The State has determined that Dan Heyman’s conduct was not unlawful and did not violate the law with which he was charged: willfully disrupting a State governmental process or meeting.
Dan Heyman had asked Secretary Tom Price the question while Mr. Price walked toward a public meeting in the West Virginia state capitol. The Secretary did not respond, so Heyman asked a few more times, holding his phone out to record a reply. Heyman was stunned when he was arrested and then spent six hours in jail before he was released to await a court hearing.
Statement from Dan Heyman, Arrested West Virginia Reporter for Public News Service:
I’m very relieved. Facing six months of jail time for asking a question as a journalist was pretty troubling. In fact one condition of my bail was that I had to keep away from the state capitol – having access is part of my job.
I don’t want my arrest to have a chilling effect on other reporters because we all need to keep asking the tough questions of elected officials. I’m incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support I’ve received from all over the country. The intense response to my arrest gives me confidence that people will defend the free press, because they believe in it.
A woman who was abused by her ex-husband thanked me for asking a question about how the proposed health care plan could affect her ability to get insurance for her and her two children. She couldn’t believe I was put in jail but her ex-husband wasn’t. I am shocked that I was arrested in the first place but I’m glad I can put this behind me.
Statement from Lark Corbeil, Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Public News Service:
The charge was dropped, appropriately. The First Amendment was tested, and, thankfully, our system and democratic values withstood the challenge. Our leaders do not get to choose which freedoms to support; anyone who encourages arresting or assaulting journalists is assaulting our Constitution. Dan Heyman and the other journalists at Public News Service will never stop asking the tough questions on behalf of those who can’t.
The journalistic and legal professions are on the forefront nationally standing up to illegal actions that violate the First Amendment. The committed group that volunteered to help Dan is part of a larger movement by many, many attorneys and journalists nationwide, who see protection of freedom of the press and our democracy as an obligation of our professions.
With deep appreciation we thank our legal team including Tim DiPiero (West Virginia), WilmerHale (DC), Mark Bailen of BakerHostetler (DC) and legal counsel to The Society of Professional Journalists, and Andrea Kramer of Kramer Frohlich, LLC (Boston).
In addition to our families and friends we are very grateful to more than we can name who gave support at key moments, including JoEllen Kaiser, The Media Consortium (CA); Kevin Goldberg, of Fletcher, Heald and Hildreth (DC) and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia; Beth White, West Virginia Association for Justice; Jaimie Crofts and Eli Baumwell, American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia; citizen storyteller Valerie Woody and the staff of West Virginia Citizen Action Group; Jennifer Royer, Society of Professional Journalists (DC); Ariel Glickman, Committee to Protect Journalists (DC); Alex Ellerbeck, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (DC); and Dan Shelley (NY) and Vincent Duffy (MI) of Radio Television Digital News Association.
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About Public News Service: News in the Public Interest
For over twenty years, our mission has been to engage and inform communities and support local newsrooms through trusted news. We are a Certified B Corp. PNS’s network of state-based news services distribute high quality public interest news to tens of thousands of media outlets, reaching a combined national weekly audience of over 40 million. Support comes from memberships, grants and gifts from NGOs, individuals and businesses for social responsibility. Our stories examine the effects of policy on areas that receive too little coverage, lifting up often marginalized voices and making greater journalistic breadth available to broadcasters and publishers on any platform.
JOINT PRESS RELEASE FROM THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE AND DAN HEYMAN’S LEGAL TEAM:
September 6, 2017 – Charleston, WV – Charles Miller, Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney, has notified Dan Heyman, a local reporter with Public News Service, through his attorneys, Tim DiPiero and lawyers in the Washington, DC law firm of WilmerHale, that the State will be dismissing today the charge it brought against him for his conduct on May 9, 2017, at the West Virginia State Capitol. The State has determined, after a careful review of the facts, that Mr. Heyman’s conduct, while it may have been aggressive journalism, was not unlawful and did not violate the law with which he was charged, that is, willfully disrupting a State governmental process or meeting. Mr. Heyman certainly appreciates the State’s decision and affirmatively states that he was simply doing his job as a reporter by asking questions of a federal official as that official walked through the Capitol.
Contacts:
Kanawha County, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney
301 Virginia Street East
Charleston, WV 25301
Fax: (304) 357-0342
Attorneys for Daniel R. Heyman
- Timothy DiPiero
DiTrapano Barrett DiPiero McGinley & Simmons, PLLC
604 Virginia Street East Charleston, WV 25301
(304) 342-0133 Tim.DiPiero@dbdlawfirm.com
Patrick J. Carome
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20006
Fax: (202) 663-6363 Patrick.Carome@wilmerhale.com
Posted by Tim Morrissey (disclosure: I am a producer for Public News Service)