LA County pays $700K to reporter arrested while covering protest

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $700,000 settlement with a local reporter who was tackled, handcuffed and arrested while covering an anti-law enforcement protest in Lynwood in 2020.

The board approved the settlement with Josie Huang unanimously, without comment. Huang was a reporter for KPCC and LAist.

Huang was arrested Sept. 12, 2020, as she was covering a confrontation involving a handful of protesters at the emergency room entrance of St. Francis Medical Center, where two deputies who had been shot in an ambush near a Compton transit station were being treated.

Video from the scene showed deputies pinning Huang to the ground and arresting her.

The sheriff’s department claimed she didn’t have proper media credentials, failed to properly identify herself as a reporter and was “interfering with a lawful arrest” of one of the protesters.

Then-sheriff Alex Villanueva later accused Huang of getting “right up on the shoulder” of a deputy trying to make an arrest, and said her actions were more “activism” than journalism.

But video from Huang’s cell phone subsequently surfaced, showing her repeatedly identifying herself as a reporter, shouting “KPCC,” and saying, “You’re hurting me” and crying out in apparent pain.

Huang was ultimately cited and released, and prosecutors declined to pursue any charges against her.

According to LAist, the $700,000 settlement is believed to be the largest of its type in the nation involving a journalist whose rights were violated while covering protests that erupted across the country following the death of George Floyd while being arrested by police in Minneapolis.

In a statement to LAist, Huang’s attorney Katie Townsend said, “It was our client’s goal to hold officials accountable for her unlawful arrest and to help prevent incidents like it from happening in the future. We are pleased that the settlement we reached with L.A. County … does both.”

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