Photojournalist sues City of Cincinnati following arrest at accident scene

Freelance photojournalist Calvin Andrus was arrested while recording the aftermath of a car accident in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the early hours of Nov. 19, 2023. Charges were later dropped, and Andrus filed a lawsuit against the city and a police sergeant in October 2024.

According to his lawsuit, Andrus was filming the response to a deadly crash using both his cellphone and a body camera, and remained outside the perimeter established by police.

But a police sergeant approached Andrus and ordered him to leave the scene, explained Steve Goodin, an attorney who represented Andrus in the criminal case. The sergeant ignored the press credentials Andrus was wearing and refused to acknowledge or read a card he carries listing laws protecting the media and the right to film police in public spaces, Goodin added.

“They told him he needed to move away, and he couldn't film there,” Goodin told the Tracker. “When he persisted and said, ‘Look, I know I'm allowed to be here,’ they expanded the crime scene by almost two acres — which was absurd. He refused to acknowledge the new crime scene, so they cuffed him and threw him in the back of the cruiser, and we think they forgot about him.”

Andrus was held in the cruiser for at least an hour and a half, Goodin said, and suffered a panic attack that required treatment at a hospital. “I think most people, if you're trapped in an enclosed place with your hands cuffed, by yourself, you would start to freak out,” he added.

Andrus was issued a citation that night for obstructing official business, a second-degree misdemeanor; the charge wasn’t formally filed until Nov. 24, according to court records reviewed by the Tracker.

Goodin told the Tracker that Andrus continued working while fighting the charge, but “felt like he had a target on his back.”

“He would go to crime scenes, and people certainly were aware of the charge pending,” Goodin said. “Police just saying, ‘Hey, you can't be here. We don't want you taping this on this public street’: That's wrong. And I mean both legally wrong and wrong from a public policy standpoint, in our view. And it has — no question — has a chilling effect on everybody, on journalists, just generally.”

After around seven months of failed negotiations and multiple trial dates, Goodin said, he filed a motion to dismiss the charge on June 21. That began to get press attention and an assistant city prosecutor dropped the case four days later.

“I do want to commend the city at the end of the day for doing the right thing here. I have to applaud the city lawyers for having the tough conversations with police officers and actually dismissing the case,” Goodin told the Tracker. “I wish it hadn't taken so much time and energy, but they eventually did do it.”

A separate Andrus attorney, Robert Klinger, filed the federal lawsuit against police Sgt. Kraig Kunz and the city on Andrus’ behalf Oct. 11. The suit alleges false arrest, malicious prosecution, unreasonable seizure and First Amendment retaliation.

“Mr. Andrus was lawfully exercising these rights as a member of the media when he stood outside of the police line tape and filmed the emergency response,” the lawsuit said. “Mr. Andrus would not have been arrested had he not been engaged in protected First Amendment activity at the scene.”

The suit also calls for an injunction against the police to prevent unreasonable expansions of crime scenes to restrict public access or wrongful arrests of journalists.

A spokesperson for the Cincinnati Police Department told the Tracker that it does not comment on open litigation.