State Police Mull Fate Of Trooper Who Arrested Journalist
Last updated Friday, January 4, 2008 7:13 PM CST in News
By John Lyon
The Morning News
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LITTLE ROCK — The internal affairs unit of the Arkansas State Police has completed its investigation of a Dec. 10 incident in which a state trooper arrested a newspaper journalist who was trying to take pictures at a house fire, but as of Friday no action had been taken as a result of the probe.
“The investigative file is being reviewed by the command staff,” state police spokesman Bill Sadler said Friday. He said he did not know when the command staff would decide whether to take disciplinary action against the trooper.
Trooper Tom Weindruch, 33, arrested and handcuffed Bill Lawson, 59, after Lawson began taking pictures at the scene of a chimney fire in Maumelle. Weindruch released Lawson at the scene with a citation for obstructing governmental operations, but the Pulaski County prosecutor later asked a judge to dismiss the citation. The judge granted the request.
Lawson is a reporter and photographer for the Maumelle Monitor and other papers owned by Stephens Media, which also owns The Morning News.
Lawson filed a complaint with state police over the incident, accusing Weindruch of inappropriate and hostile behavior. The agency temporarily assigned Weindruch to office duties and began an internal investigation.
Weindruch has not spoken to the media about the incident, but in his arrest report he wrote that he acted out of concern for his safety after Lawson walked within four or five feet of him and fired his camera flash, which “caused me to start seeing bright halos and blurred my vision.”
According to Lawson’s account of the incident, Weindruch became angry after he took a picture of the trooper from about 10 feet away.
“I think he just overreacted and was trying (in his report) to justify his actions at the time, which were unjustifiable,” Lawson said Friday.
In the weeks since his arrest, Lawson said he has received plenty of “good-natured ribbing” over the incident, as well as comments that were more troubling.
“I’ve had people say, ‘You must have been doing something wrong or they wouldn’t have arrested you,’” he said.
Some of the attention has come from complete strangers. Lawson was working on a story about a school Christmas party last month when a fifth-grader yelled to his classmates, “There’s the guy who got arrested by the state trooper!”
“I would much prefer to live a low-profile life,” Lawson said. “I’d rather cover the news than make the news.”
Sadler said that if “affirmative job action” — i.e., termination, a reduction in pay or a suspension without pay — were taken against Weindruch, he would have an opportunity to appeal the action to the Arkansas State Police Commission.
Arkansas State Police Director Col. Winford Phillips said in a statement last month that incidents of inappropriate behavior by any state police employee would not be tolerated. Phillips ordered internal affairs investigators to make the Weindruch probe their top priority.
Lawson said Friday that Weindruch should at least receive anger management counseling, and that the incident should be noted in the trooper’s personnel file.
The episode should serve as a lesson to all law enforcement officers in Arkansas on how not to deal with members of the media, who have a role to play at breaking news scenes, Lawson said.
“We shouldn’t interfere with safety, but we should be able to document what occurs at a fire, for example, without being interfered (with),” he said.
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Ozarks wrote on Jan 5, 2008 1:16 PM: