Lawyer defends trial of reporter arrested covering BLM protests

Polk County Attorney John Sarcone says ‘no one is above the law’, supports unsuccessful trial of Andrea Sahouri.

An Iowa prosecutor defended his unsuccessful pursuit of charges against a journalist who was arrested while covering a Black Lives Matter protest, saying Thursday that he believed the evidence was strong and that dismissing the case would have amounted to special treatment. Polk County Attorney John Sarcone, a Democrat who has held office since 1991, dismissed the outrage he has faced for his decision to prosecute Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri as unwarranted. A Des Moines police officer pepper-sprayed and arrested Sahouri last May while she was on assignment reporting at a chaotic Black Lives Matter protest outside a mall. Sahouri, 25, was charged with disobeying police orders to disperse and interfering with the officer who arrested her.