Andrea Sahouri, a journalist for the Des Moines Registry, testified Tuesday and recounted the incident in which a police officer sprayed and arrested her while covering a racial justice protest last year.
According to the Associated Press, Sahouri told jury members he was fleeing a scene where tear gas had been fired to disperse protesters when he saw an officer carrying her and made her raise her hands.
“He wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Sahouri said, according to the AP. “I said,‘ I’m press, I’m press, I’m press. ’He grabbed me, sprayed me with pepper, and as he did so, he said,‘ It’s not what I asked for. ’”
Spenser Robnett, Sahouri’s boyfriend at the time of his arrest, also testified AP reports on Tuesday. She told the court that after seeing Sahouri being sprayed with pepper, she stepped forward to inform the agent, Officer Luke Wilson, that she was a journalist who was only to be sprinkled with pepper.
Body camera images were also shown during the trial during which Sahouri could be seen temporarily blinded and in pain, while repeatedly telling officers she was a journalist.
“This is my job,” Sahouri tells one of the officers. “I am just doing my job. I’m a journalist. “
Both Sahouri and Robnett face charges of lack of dispersal and interference in official acts, which can lead to fines and imprisonment. They both stated that they did not listen to the order of dispersal and decided to continue reporting on what he described as a historic moment.
“It’s important for journalists to be on the scene and document what’s going on,” he said, according to the AP.
According to the AP, Judge Lawrence McLellan withheld the ruling on the motion to acquit the defense, although he could issue a decision Wednesday.
During her testimony Monday, Wilson said she decided to arrest Sahouri after she did not leave the scene.
“Once I determined I wasn’t leaving, I had to take action,” Wilson said. He testified during cross-examination that he decided to charge her with interference after she pulled his left arm away while he was holding her, a detail he acknowledged he had not included in his report.
Wilson was unable to turn on the body camera, mistakenly believing it was already on. The AP notes that agents who do not capture significant incidents should report them to supervisors who can retrieve the images. Wilson said he didn’t.