11:49 p.m. ET, September 24, 2020
Two reporters arrested and held overnight while covering Louisville protests
From CNN’s Alec Snyder
Two journalists with The Daily Caller, a conservative online news outlet based in Washington, DC, were arrested late Wednesday night while covering the protests in Kentucky, one of the reporters told CNN Thursday.
Daily Caller reporters Jorge Ventura and Shelby Talcott were trailing a group of protesters after the 9 p.m. ET curfew when officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department allegedly began firing rubber bullets at the crowd, Ventura said.
Soon after, they and Kentucky State Police ordered everyone in the protest to get down on the ground, Ventura said. He added that he and Talcott showed the officers their press credentials and Talcott began communicating with their editor-in-chief, Geoffrey Ingersoll, before they were arrested with zip ties.
Ventura said the protest was outside the jail where they were eventually held. Soon after arriving, Ventura said one of the superior officers came in from another room asking him to confirm his identity and press affiliation, which Ventura said he did. The officer then told Ventura he was going to go speak to his editor -- who was on the line -- about the situation, but when the officer came back, Ventura said he was told he would still be charged and held overnight.
Charging documents obtained by CNN show that Ventura was officially charged with failing to obey a local county ordinance and failure to disperse, both of which are misdemeanors, according to what Ventura was told.
Ventura said he and Talcott were eventually separated into adjacent male and female holding cells, and they could only communicate by eye contact.
Ventura said he was told he would be released “no later than 6:30 in the morning,” Thursday but says he wasn’t out until 1 p.m., and still among the first of those detained to leave. He said he was detained in a holding cell with around 40 protesters, with social distancing protocols not followed.
Talcott
tweeted Thursday evening that she had been released, which Ventura said happened at around 5 p.m.
"I still can’t make sense of (it)," he said. "After speaking with my boss, I think they could’ve done a little bit more. It just doesn’t really make sense to talk to my boss once he knew we were accredited journalists. Why even take the phone call then?"
CNN has reached out to the LMPD for comment.