Journalist Josie Huang arrested, charged with obstructing police in Los Angeles

Reporter Josie Huang has reached a $700,000 settlement with Los Angeles County and the LA County Sheriff's Department, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The county’s Board of Supervisors approved the agreement on Nov. 7, 2023.

RCFP, whose attorneys, along with counsel from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, helped negotiate the settlement without a lawsuit being filed, called it “the largest award to an individual journalist whose rights were violated in connection with protest coverage in 2020.”

The agreement addresses a September 2020 incident in which Huang, a reporter for public radio station KPCC-FM/LAist 89.3, was filming sheriff’s deputies making an arrest when they tackled and arrested her, stomping on her phone, she recounted on social media at the time. Huang was wearing her press ID and verbally identified herself as press during the altercation.

Huang was detained for five hours and then cited for obstructing a police officer. Two weeks later, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced that it would not pursue charges against her.

In order to eliminate the arrest from her record, however, Huang had to petition the Los Angeles Superior Court for a finding of factual innocence, which was granted on May 19, 2023.

In addition to the payment to Huang, the settlement requires the Sheriff’s Department to re-brief its employees about the department’s news media policy, which affirms that photography and video and audio recording in themselves cannot form the basis of a detention, arrest or warrantless search, and that interfering with those activities on public grounds is prohibited.

The re-brief also notes that department personnel are prohibited from tampering with, altering, deleting or destroying any photographic, video or audio records, or equipment under any circumstances.

In exchange, the county denied violating any laws with respect to Huang.

“This settlement upholds the rights of journalists and helps ensure that what happened to me won’t happen to other reporters. My arrest was traumatic, but I hope that some good can still come of this experience,” Huang told RCFP, adding: “Journalists in Los Angeles County should be able to record police activity in public without fear of unlawful arrest. As the public’s eyes and ears, we must be able to cover protests and document how law enforcement responds to those protests.”

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced on Sept. 24, 2020, that it will not pursue the charges against KPCC and LAist reporter Josie Huang, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Huang was tackled and arrested by deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department while she was covering officers making an arrest on Sept. 12.

In a memo declining to file criminal charges, prosecutors said that Huang was filming in a public area and given no opportunity to comply with deputies’ orders to move back before she was taken to the ground.

The Times reported that the County Inspector General and the Sheriff’s Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau are carrying out independent investigations of the arrest.

Huang told the Times that she appreciated the district attorney’s decision, but plans to continue challenging the Sheriff’s Department’s narrative of the arrest.

“I am seeking a finding of ‘factual innocence’ that will wipe this unlawful arrest from my record,” she said. “More than ever, I am grateful for the 1st Amendment, which entitles all Americans — not just journalists — to the rights of free speech and assembly.”