Four journalists filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against St. Louis County police, alleging that they were falsely arrested in the Ferguson protests, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The suit says the journalists were arrested and held without probable cause, that the arrests violated the First and Fourth Amendments, and that they constituted false imprisonment and battery.
The suit was filed on behalf of Ryan Devereaux, with the Intercept/First Look Media; Lukas Hermsmeier, a freelance journalist; Ansgar Graw, the senior political U.S. correspondent for Die Welt and Welt am Sonntag; and Frank Herrmann, the U.S. correspondent for a group of German regional newspapers. the American Civil Liberties Union The ACLU sued police on behalf of a Turkish reporter, Bilgin Sasmaz, in November and News2Share.com journalist Gerald D. Yingst III in December, lodging similar allegations. Attorneys for police have denied the allegations and said they had probable cause for the arrests.