Reporters threatened with arrest while covering I-40 bridge collapse
By The Associated Press
05.30.02
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WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. — One reporter was handcuffed and detained and other members of the news media say they have been threatened and hassled by authorities while covering the Interstate 40 bridge collapse.
Sheila Stogsdill, a correspondent for Oklahoma City’s The Daily Oklahoman, was handcuffed and detained briefly by Webbers Falls police officer Luke Morrison. Mayor Jewell Horne later ordered Stogsdill released and apologized.
Stogsdill was walking in a public park away from a portion of City Hall set aside for families of the victims. She did not leave when asked to do so by John Hnath, a volunteer with the Tulsa medical examiner's officer, who then told local police to arrest her.
"Our reporters and photographers are just trying to do their jobs," said Sue A. Hale, executive editor of The Daily Oklahoman. "This is not Afghanistan. This is the United States and access to public parks is protected by the First Amendment.
"Certainly, the officials in Webbers Falls do not want to create the impression that they don't respect the Constitution or they have created a police state,” Hale said. “However, that's what it looks like when they arrest reporters and threaten to arrest members of the news media."
Two Associated Press reporters were threatened with arrest on at least four occasions involving Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers and Muskogee County sheriff's deputies.
Asked about the incidents, patrol Lt. Chris West said he doubted troopers actually threatened reporters and said he wouldn't believe it unless he had a name and badge number.
Cecilia Collins of the Muskogee County Sheriff's Department said no action could be taken without a name and badge number.
Reporters, however, say they could not get close enough to get a name without the threat of being arrested.
Dan Mahoney, press secretary for Gov. Frank Keating, said yesterday, "Our position is that's inexcusable. The media has a job to do."
Mahoney said the news media needs to protect the privacy of the families, but public information also is a goal. "Perhaps it was some overzealous law enforcement. I can't fault them because they were trying to protect the privacy of the families."
Three reporters interviewing a victim's relative on the town square were told they would be arrested for unlawful assembly if they didn't leave.
A Muskogee County sheriff's deputy told another reporter he would be arrested for interfering with a federal investigation if he continued an interview on a Webbers Falls street.
Print and broadcast reporters have been corralled onto the parking lot of a convenience store on Oklahoma Highway 100 — nearly two miles from the accident scene and two miles from the town.
"To be threatened with arrest for doing an interview in the town square is ridiculous," said Ashley Parrish, a reporter for the Tulsa World who also is a free-lance reporter for The New York Times.
Parrish, colleague Michael Overall and an AP reporter were threatened on the afternoon of May 26 while interviewing Gwen Smith, a sister of Norman police Detective Wayne Martin, who along with his wife, Susan, was among those who died.
Muskogee County sheriff's chaplain Eddie Smith dispersed the reporters and told them that remaining in the square would result in an unlawful assembly arrest. Gwen Smith was fully cooperating with the interview.
"We are stuck on a parking lot getting all of our reports from pools or press conferences," Parrish said.
Ken Raymond, a reporter for The Daily Oklahoman, said he was threatened with arrest on federal charges of interfering with an investigation, also by a Muskogee County sheriff's deputy.
Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management, said reporters have been kept away from the family aid center in Webbers Falls to protect the privacy of victims' relatives.
"The last thing we want to see happen is somebody being additionally victimized while they are already vulnerable," she said.
