Trey Yingst, a journalist arrested during November protests in Ferguson, Mo., has settled a civil rights lawsuit filed against St. Louis County and the commanding officer involved in the incident. Yingst, who filed the suit in December with the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, will receive $8,500, and all three charges against him—unlawful assembly, failure to obey a lawful order and interfering with the duties of a police officer—have been dropped. (HuffPost)
Yingst, a reporter with the online news site News2Share, was arrested while reporting near the Ferguson Police Department on Nov. 22, two days before it was announced that a grand jury would not indict police officer Darren Wilson. (The Washington Times)
New York-based journalist Bilgin Sasmaz said he was wrongfully arrested in August while photographing protests for the Turkish Anadolu Agency. Sasmaz’s lawsuit claimed he was thrown to the ground by an unidentified county officer and arrested for “refusing to disperse” after photographing a St. Ann police officer who was pointing his rifle at protesters. Sasmaz said he had identified himself as a journalist. (ABC News / AP)
The ACLU sued the police in federal court in St. Louis on behalf of Yingst and Sasmaz late last year. ACLU executive director Jeffrey Mittman noted the First Amendment protects people’s right to protest and freedom of the press, and that journalists’ ability to document the events in Ferguson allowed citizens to draw their own conclusions about whether police conduct was appropriate. The two journalists have agreed to dismiss their claims against the department “with prejudice,” meaning they cannot take the same claims to court again, contingent on getting the arrests expunged. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)