Reporters forced from California county meeting during protester’s arrest

Members of the press were ejected by sheriff’s deputies from a Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting in Redding, California, on Nov. 7, 2024. The deputies claimed that the room was cleared for safety reasons as they arrested a protester who had seated herself in front of the dais.

The protester, one of two, held 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 remained — Doni Chamberlain of A News Cafe, Annelise Pierce of Shasta Scout and David Benda of the Record Searchlight.

The second protester soon left, but the first refused. Pierce told County Counsel Joseph Larmour, who had also ordered the reporters out of the room, that she was staying to document a citizen’s actions, the Shasta Scout reported. Larmour responded that the protester was “a ‘target’ of law enforcement and therefore didn’t ‘count’ as a citizen.”

A group of sheriff’s deputies then entered, some of whom arrested the remaining protester. Another joined 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.

Pierce and Benda left the room; Chamberlain was grabbed and forcibly removed by a sheriff’s deputy. After the protester was removed, the meeting reconvened and the journalists reentered.

Later, 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.”

Meanwhile, the Shasta County Sheriff 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.”

The board also issued its own news release, alleging that press had been removed under “a protocol that has been in place for more than a year.” Shasta Scout reported that in response to a request for documentation of the protocol, Larmour acknowledged it had “not been memorialized in writing.”

It was the second time reporters were ordered to leave the room during a protest at a supervisor’s meeting. The first was in July, when the same woman protested. That time, journalists remained to report on her arrest.

After that arrest, the board announced a new media policy under which media must stay sequestered in a separate room, watching the meetings through glass windows and only hearing audio spoken through a microphone, Shasta Scout reported. If press chose to stay in the main room, they would be ordered to leave during any “disruptions.”

The policy was rescinded days later, after criticism from the public and advocacy group First Amendment Coalition, which called it a violation of California’s open meetings law and the First Amendment.

Reporter Chamberlain told the Tracker she saw Nov. 7’s events as a reaction to press coverage of the earlier protest.

“I believe Chair Kevin Crye and Sheriff Mike Johnson were angry and embarrassed by our reporting about (the protester),” Chamberlain told the Tracker. “I believe they decided they would not allow press access to report what happened again.”

In a Nov. 12 letter to the board and sheriff’s office, the First Amendment Coalition criticized the media’s removal from the Nov. 7 meeting as another violation of open meetings law and the Constitution, noting that there was little justification for clearing the room at all, let alone ordering the press to leave.

Pierce told the Tracker that she was surprised that the deputies would engage in such “a clear violation of First Amendment rights,” but that “there have been ongoing indication of threats to press freedom under our new board majority,” a reference to the media policy enacted in July.

Chamberlain mentioned that several militia group members showed up at the Nov. 7 meeting and stood along the back wall, “which made for an intimidating sight.”

“Shasta County law enforcement has a history of colluding with the militia,” Pierce added. “For this reason, I found the arrival of individuals, some known to be militia members, particularly concerning.”