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EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (NewsNation) — A NewsNation reporter was arrested Wednesday during a news conference being held by the Ohio governor about a train derailment.
Correspondent Evan Lambert was giving a live report during NewsNation’s “Rush Hour” when he was told by law enforcement personnel at the news conference to be quiet because Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was speaking.
The charges Lambert is facing are disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing.
After Lambert was taken into custody by police, DeWine said he didn’t personally order the arrest.
“It has always been my practice that if I’m doing a press conference, someone wants to report out there and they want to be talking back to the people back on channel, whatever, they have every right to do that,” DeWine said. “If someone was stopped from doing that, or told they could not do that, that was wrong. It was nothing that I authorized.”
As Lambert was being placed in the back of a squad car, he said, “It’s tough to do your job in America in 2023, but we’ll keep doing it.”
The news conference in East Palestine, Ohio, was scheduled for 3 p.m. ET, but had been delayed. DeWine eventually began speaking around 5 p.m., at the same time Lambert was scheduled to go live on NewsNation.
Preston Swigart, a photographer who was with Lambert, said Lambert was approached by police who asked him to stop talking. The news conference was being held in a gymnasium at East Palestine Elementary School.
“From their standpoint, he didn’t obey orders when he was told to stop talking,” Swigart said. “Gymnasiums are echoey and loud and sound kind of carries, so I’m guessing that they just didn’t like the fact that there was sound competing with the governor speaking, even though it was all the way at the other end of the room.”
Lambert is a Washington, D.C., correspondent and was in Ohio to cover the news conference, where DeWine was giving an update on evacuation orders that have been in place since a train derailed in East Palestine, a small town on the border with Pennsylvania.
About 50 freight cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in East Palestine at around 9 p.m. Friday. Rail operator Norfolk Southern said the train was carrying products from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, at the time of the derailment.
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No injuries to crew, residents or first responders have been reported as a result of the train derailment. But some people have complained of smelling chlorine or smoke and having headaches.
The derailment has sparked new concerns concerning dangerous chemicals. Authorities warned that burning vinyl chloride in five of the derailed tanker cars would send hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air.
Local law enforcement told Lambert he will be held overnight in the Columbiana County Jail, and the earliest he can be released is 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.
“Evan is safe and calm, and continues to act with professionalism and integrity that he brings to his work each day,” said Mike Viqueira, NewsNation’s Washington Bureau chief. “As you see from the videos, he was doing his job — what hundreds of journalists do without incident — reporting to the public on a matter of urgent, critical interest to our audience.”
Viqueria called the arrest a violation of the First Amendment that infuriates him.
“I was watching the press conference stream … and the only thing I heard that was disruptive was when this altercation with the police — which apparently they have instigated — was unfolding,” Viqueria said. “I did not hear anything of Evan’s voice when he was quietly speaking on live television. … As his boss, as his colleague, as a fellow journalist, it’s really infuriating.”
In video captured by NewsNation affiliate WKBN-TV leading up to the arrest, four people appearing to be law enforcement officials are in an argument with Lambert, attempting to get him to leave the gymnasium. At one point, one of the officers, who is wearing jeans and a green T-shirt with handcuffs on his belt, pulls on Lambert’s arm to forcibly remove him.
A struggle then ensues in the entrance to the gymnasium before Lambert is tackled to the ground and placed in handcuffs. The two officers who arrested him placed him in the back of a Columbia County sheriff’s vehicle.
In a statement to NewsNation, DeWine’s office reiterated the governor’s position that the interruption to Lambert’s broadcast should not have taken place.
“As the Governor said at the conclusion of today’s briefing, he has always respected the media’s right to report live before, during, and after his press briefings,” the statement said. “Because the Governor did not witness what occurred after the broadcast ended, we cannot provide comment on what led to the reporter’s arrest.”
