Filmmaker arrested while covering West Virginia pipeline protest

Independent filmmaker Laura Saunders was arrested on Oct. 21, 2018, while reporting on a pipeline construction protest in Beckley, West Virginia. Trespassing and obstruction charges against her were later dropped.

Saunders told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was one of several reporters and local TV stations on the scene, filming demonstrators as they held up signs, blocked the entrance to the Mountain Valley Pipeline pipe yard and spoke with private security.

When officers with the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Office arrived, Saunders said, they negotiated with protesters about where people could be on the property. She said that officers also began writing down the license plates of cars that weren’t parked on the pipeline property, and she questioned them about it.

“I have a suspicion that this was what put me on their radar, but I felt that this was an important question to ask — especially on camera,” Saunders told the Tracker. She said they refused to answer.

The scene quieted down until a group of demonstrators walked into the middle of the road to stop a pipe truck from moving, with some locking themselves to the truck.

Saunders told the Tracker she had been moving back and forth to film from different angles, but went to record the truck lockdown. Law enforcement quickly began corralling people, she said.

“I was filming from a distance when the arrests began happening,” she said. “There were some violent arrests. One woman was basically carried by her arms and legs out of sight from everyone. When a group of people crossed the road to get a line of sight on her, I did that too.”

While she was filming that scene, Saunders said sheriff’s deputies pointed at her and said, “You’re coming in.” She said they also pulled out another woman who had been taking photographs.

“I didn’t get read my rights,” Saunders said. “I was put in the back of a police car with handcuffs on really tight and then taken in to be booked.”

According to Saunders, one officer, who was not her arresting officer, instructed the processing officer to “give them all the same charges.” Saunders told the Tracker that the person processed before her had been charged with battery. But she persuaded the officer to wait for her paperwork to come in before processing her charges and was eventually moved to a cell.

Later that evening, she was released on charges of trespassing and obstruction after she paid a $2,000 bond, according to court records reviewed by the Tracker.

Saunders said that she had been filming protests of the construction of the pipeline since April, but until that day had only received one warning. She added that she didn’t return to covering the pipeline protests at first, because she was nervous about risking future interaction with law enforcement.

“There’s the psychological stress and monetary concerns and the risk of having multiple charges against me,” she told the Tracker. “I thought I had a sense of things until this happened.”

According to court records, the charges against Saunders were dropped on March 19, 2019, a few days before she was scheduled to go to trial, and the case was closed three days later. Saunders told the Tracker she then resumed covering the protests.