Still No Action in Photographer Arrest

In December Maumelle newspaper photographer, Bill Lawson, was arrested by an Arkansas state trooper for "obstructing governmental operations" as Lawson took photographs of a house fire. Lawson filed a complaint against the trooper stating, "While he had me handcuffed he got up in my face and was verbally abusive. I think he was really trying to pick a fight with me." The short-term outcome was that the charges against Lawson were dropped, the trooper was reassigned, and an investigation was started.

Now the investigation is complete but no action has been taken and no ruling released by command staff of the trooper. However, in an interesting twist, a local news outlet has used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain more records of complaints against the trooper.

Hopefully the trooper's command staff will make a ruling soon so Lawson can really put this incident behind him.