Settlement With LAist Correspondent Would Be Among Largest For Media Rights Violations During George Floyd Protests

LAist correspondent Josie Huang has reached a $700,000 settlement with L.A. County after she was thrown to the ground, pinned, handcuffed and arrested by sheriff’s deputies while documenting a 2020 arrest during a protest in Lynwood.

If approved by the County Board of Supervisors at their next meeting on Tuesday, the settlement would be one of the largest in the nation to an individual reporter whose rights were violated while covering the 2020 protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. The largest so far — $600,000 — was awarded to Linda Tirado, a freelance journalist in Minneapolis. She was blinded in her left eye by a police projectile while covering a protest.

In agreeing to the settlement, the county and sheriff’s department admitted no wrongdoing in connection with the incident.

At the same time, a memo to the Board of Supervisors from the county’s litigation cost manager cited as a “root cause” of the incident that one of the deputies “did not allow Plaintiff time to comply with his orders.” Deputies say they ordered Huang to move away from the area of the arrest. Video evidence shows Huang complied.

The memo states deputies involved in the arrest of Huang have attended “training and tactics pertaining to the circumstances surrounding this incident.”

Huang declined comment pending the supervisors' vote. Her attorney, Katie Townsend, who is deputy executive director and legal director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said, "It was our client’s goal to hold officials accountable for her unlawful arrest and to help prevent incidents like it from happening in the future. We are pleased that the settlement we reached with L.A. County, while it still needs to be approved, does both.”

Read Josie Huang's account of her arrest

The confrontation between Huang and deputies occurred on Sept. 12, 2020, outside St. Frances Medical Center, where two deputies were being treated for gunshot wounds. The sheriff’s department claimed Huang interfered with deputies who were arresting a protester. Deputies arrested Huang on a charge of obstructing a police officer.

Huang suffered multiple injuries, including scrapes and bruises to a knee, ankle and eye, as well as emotional distress in the incident. The district attorney refused to prosecute the award-winning journalist and she was later found factually innocent by a Superior Court judge.

Huang alleged deputies detained her without legal justification and used unnecessary force.

Arrest captured on video

Even as she was being thrown to the ground, Huang — who was wearing a lanyard with her press credential hanging from her neck — was recording the encounter. In a video that continued to film after her phone was knocked from her hand, Huang can be heard repeatedly identifying herself as a reporter and shouting “KPCC” several times — the call letters for the radio station now known as LAist 89.3.

Huang is heard in the video yelling "you're hurting me" and crying out in pain. She sustained injuries to her knees, ankles and right eye area.

On that night and in the days that followed, then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva repeated on Twitter and elsewhere a false narrative that Huang interfered with deputies effectuating an arrest, wasn’t wearing a press badge, and never identified herself as a reporter.

The 2020 arrest of Huang came amid rising tensions between law enforcement and journalists in Los Angeles — especially during protests. In May of that year, Long Beach Police fired a rubber bullet that hit LAist and KPCC correspondent Adolfo Guzman-Lopez in the neck.

Huang’s arrest drew widespread condemnation from press freedom groups, including the Society of Professional Journalists and L.A. Press Club. Huang was represented by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher.