California journalist grabbed by sheriff’s deputy at county board meeting

Journalist Doni Chamberlain was grabbed and forced out of a Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting in Redding, California, by a sheriff’s deputy on Nov. 7, 2024.

Chamberlain, publisher and owner of A News Cafe, an online news magazine, reported that she was one of several journalists ejected from the meeting after law enforcement began the arrest of a protester who had seated herself in front of the dais. Chamberlain told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she believed that the ejection was intended to prevent them from covering the protest and subsequent arrest.

Chamberlain began livestreaming the meeting when two protesters seated themselves on the floor at the front of the room, one holding a sign supporting a county official who had been criticized over election monitoring practices. When the board chair called a recess and ordered the public to leave the room, three journalists, including Chamberlain, remained.

Security guards asked Chamberlain to leave the room several times and stood in front of her phone camera as she livestreamed the protesters. Chamberlain told him that she had the right to remain there as a journalist.

The second protester soon left, but the first refused. A group of sheriff’s deputies then entered, some of whom arrested the remaining protester. Another joined the security guards in ordering the journalists to move further back in the room, telling them that safety issues and an “ongoing investigation” required that they leave and threatening them with arrest. The lights in the room were also turned off as the arrest proceeded.

“Clearly, law enforcement’s goal was to move the press as far from their dealings with (the protester) as possible, so we couldn’t see, hear, or report,” Chamberlain told the Tracker.

The two other reporters left the room, leaving Chamberlain standing in the open doorway. A sheriff’s deputy ordered her into the foyer; Chamberlain again refused, saying that she had a right as a member of the press to remain there as long as the protest and arrest were ongoing in the board chambers.

The deputy gestured at a colleague, who grabbed Chamberlain’s cellphone, causing her Facebook Live feed to go dark. He then let go of her phone and took hold of both of her upper arms, pushing her out of the room.

She reported that her arms were sore after being “roughly grabbed,” but that her phone was not damaged.

Chamberlain told the Tracker that the security guard and sheriff’s deputies “absolutely knew I was a member of the press, because I repeatedly verbally identified myself as a journalist who had a protected First Amendment right to remain in the room where a peaceful protester was being dealt with by multiple deputies.”

She said that she typically doesn’t wear a press pass because she’s well-known in the county after 30 years of journalism, but added, “From now on, I’ll start wearing a press pass to all events.”

Chamberlain also explained that she prefers to attend the board’s meetings in person because the online livestream is turned off during recesses or if a problem arises — and such situations are “not rare.” “This means anyone watching the livestreaming video is suddenly, literally, in the dark about what’s happening,” she said. So when the livestream stops, Chamberlain said she starts streaming the meeting on Facebook Live for the benefit of the public.

After the ejection, Supervisor Tim Garman posted an apology on Facebook to media forced out of the meeting room.

“The constitution protects their rights to be where the news is happening, and someone being arrested in a public building is certainly news,” he wrote. “There was zero safety threat inside the board chambers.”

Chamberlain told the Tracker she intends to file a complaint with the Sheriff’s Office against the deputies and another with the Shasta County Administration Office against the board chair. She also said that she reported the incident to the ACLU and the First Amendment Coalition, and is looking for an attorney.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s Office reiterated in a news release that the meeting room had been cleared “for safety,” and announced that “this incident remains under investigation and other individuals who failed to obey lawful orders to exit the chambers may also face charges.”

Chamberlain mentioned that several militia group members showed up at the meeting and stood along the back wall, “which made for an intimidating sight.” Chamberlain was assaulted in July 2023 while attempting to document a meeting of a group of conservative activists planned by Jesse Lane, one of the militia members present at the Nov. 7 meeting.

“After these two assaults, I feel less and less safe working as a journalist,” Chamberlain told the Tracker. “These are scary days to be a journalist.”