By: State police are investigating the arrest of a weekly newspaper journalist by a state trooper at the scene of a house fire in Maumelle, an agency spokesman said this week.
On the night of Dec. 10, Bill Lawson parked his car, grabbed his camera and headed for the scene where firefighters were battling a chimney fire. He was stopped by Trooper Thomas Weindruch and arrested, according to Stephens Media, owner of the Maumelle Monitor.
"He kept me there handcuffed for probably 30 minutes with my back to the fire," Lawson said. "That was the worst part ? I couldn't even see what was going on."
The suburban-Little Rock newspaper published Lawson's first-person account of the incident Dec. 11.
"Having lived 59 years, battled cancer, worn the country's uniform for 26 years and proudly worked as a journalist ? a profession I always admired ? I thought I'd seen it all," Lawson wrote. "That is until Monday night, when I was arrested and charged with a criminal offense just for trying to do my job and take photos of a residential fire in Maumelle."
Weindruch issued Lawson, 59, a citation ordering him to appear in Sherwood District Court on Feb. 26 on the charge of obstructing governmental operations. A conviction on the misdemeanor is punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine up to $100.
Bill Sadler, spokesman for the state police, said agency officials were gathering information about what occurred.
"We're trying to collect the facts of what occurred out there, and review what occurred, and see if there was any policy violation, and that's really all I can tell you right now," Sadler said on Dec. 11.
He said state police strive to be open and to work with the news media.
"But until we talk with the trooper and hear his side of the story, and review the recordings that are available (from equipment mounted in Weindruch's patrol car), I don't want to say anything," Sadler added.
He said the agency would respond "once the department is sure that it has all the facts."
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