[lbo-talk] Deputy tackles, arrests journalist for photographing voters

[John Adams]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2004/11/01/ 
m1a_Henry_1101.html

Deputy tackles, arrests journalist for photographing voters

By Jane Daugherty

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, November 01, 2004

A widely published investigative journalist was tackled, punched and  
arrested Sunday afternoon by a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy who  
tried to confiscate his camera outside the elections supervisor's  
headquarters.

About 600 people were standing in line waiting to vote early when James  
S. Henry was charged with disorderly conduct for taking photos of  
waiting voters about 3:30 p.m. outside the main elections office on  
Military Trail near West Palm Beach.

A sheriff's spokesman and a county attorney later said the deputy was  
enforcing a newly enacted rule from Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore  
prohibiting reporters from interviewing or photographing voters lined  
up outside the polls.

But the arrest drew expressions of outrage from a leading Florida civil  
liberties expert — and even from one of LePore's fellow county election  
supervisors.

When Deputy Al Cinque tried to grab Henry's camera, Henry ran about 100  
feet across the pavement on the side of the elections office before he  
was tackled by the deputy.

Cinque yelled at Henry, "Hold still, stop moving," after he pinned  
Henry on the pavement, punched him in the back and grabbed Henry's left  
arm to put a handcuff on his wrist.

Cinque then jerked Henry, 54, to his feet by his left arm and slammed  
his body against a parked car, where the deputy punched him again as  
Henry tried to hand him identification cards that were later found on  
the pavement.

A widely published free-lance journalist, as well as a Harvard-educated  
lawyer and economist, Henry has written for The New York Times, The  
Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report and The New Republic.

According to his Web site, www.submergingmarkets.com, he is working on  
"an election-year book, due out this fall, that explores how the U.S.  
is falling behind the rest of the democratic world, including countries  
like Brazil and South Africa, with respect to the practice of electoral  
democracy."

Asked why Henry was being arrested, Cinque said, "You're not allowed to  
take pictures of voters."

Henry repeatedly told the deputy: "I'm a journalist. I'm a journalist  
doing my job."

A Palm Beach Post reporter and British journalist Marcus Warren, of the  
London Daily Telegraph, witnessed Henry's arrest. So did dozens of  
waiting voters.

Sheriff's spokesman Paul Miller said that before being transported to  
the Palm Beach County Jail, Henry was examined by paramedics when he  
complained of shoulder pain. Henry has been charged with disorderly  
conduct and resisting arrest without violence, Miller said.

"We're not going to let anyone interfere with the orderly conduct of  
the elections process here," Miller said.

LePore refused to come to the main desk of elections headquarters to  
comment on the arrest. She did not return later calls for comment.

One of LePore's peers, Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho,  
called restricting reporters and photographers on public sidewalks  
outside polling places "an outrage. I'm shocked. The First Amendment  
right to be there is absolute.

"Outside our early voting place we had Japanese journalists, the BBC,  
all kinds of reporters and photographers," added Sancho, who is based  
in Tallahassee. "It's a public place, a public sidewalk. There is no  
statute, no law that can take away your right to talk to someone who is  
willing on a public sidewalk as long as no one is obstructing or  
interfering."

Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida chapter of the American  
Civil Liberties Union, also called Henry's arrest an outrage. "Where  
did Theresa LePore get the authority to criminalize activities  
protected by the First Amendment?"

Henry was one of the original "Nader's raiders" who worked decades ago  
with consumer advocate Ralph Nader, and was vice president for strategy  
for IBM/Lotus before he founded the Long Island-based Sag Harbor Group,  
a consulting firm that focuses on technology strategy. He has continued  
his investigative reporting career at the same time, in 2004 publishing  
The Blood Bankers, a book reporting on "dirty banking" in developing  
countries. The book includes an introduction from former U.S. Sen. Bill  
Bradley.

The Rev. George Wilson, a Presbyterian minister from Long Island, N.Y.,  
who accompanied Henry to West Palm Beach Sunday morning, said Henry was  
interested in touch-screen voting in Palm Beach County and had arrived  
to observe the process.

"We flew down this morning," Wilson said. "I can't believe they're  
treating him this way. He was just standing there taking pictures.

"When did taking photographs outside in a public place become a crime?"

Wilson retrieved Henry's Minolta camera with a large lens from the top  
of the trunk of the parked car after Henry was put in a sheriff's car.

Assistant Palm Beach County Attorney Leon St. John, who represents the  
elections supervisor, said Henry had been charged with disorderly  
conduct, a misdemeanor, based on LePore's instructions to deputies.

He said the charge against Henry was based on new rules LePore  
implemented Friday, prohibiting reporters from talking to or  
photographing voters while they are in line outside the polls. He said  
she made the rule as the result of "numerous complaints by voters about  
being photographed and interviewed."

However, The Post and other newspapers and television stations had  
previously interviewed and photographed voters in line without incident  
since early voting began Oct. 18. LePore did not mention any new  
restrictions on interviews and photographs during a meeting with news  
media representatives Friday.

As for Henry, St. John said: "From what I understand, this man (Henry)  
was taking photos of people in line close up. He was ordered by the  
deputy to stop and to move to the media tent...

"He said something inappropriate to the deputy, like 'screw you,' then  
took a picture of the deputy. He then took off running and tripped and  
fell in the parking lot."

In fact, Cinque tackled Henry in the parking lot a few feet from a Post  
reporter and Warren, the British journalist.

"That's not what the deputy told me," St. John said.

LePore spokesman Marty Rogol described Henry as "a so-called  
investigative reporter who gave people phony credentials."

Told that Henry had been published in The New York Times, The  
Washington Post and other publications, Rogol said Henry had presented  
"Xeroxed credentials that looked phony and were not accepted" by the  
deputy who arrested him.

Late Sunday, Miller said Henry "will probably spend the night in jail."  
He was still there late Sunday night on $500 bail.