Reporter Arrested At Protest Sues Belmar

BELMAR – An Asbury Park Press reporter has sued Asbury Park and Belmar following his arrest during a protest last month.

In the lawsuit, Gustavo Martinez said his constitutional rights were violated when Asbury Park police "willfully, deliberately, and maliciously arrested him without probable cause."

Martinez said he was "unlawfully tackled, arrested, detained and jailed by law enforcement" while reporting on the police use of force against two teenage protesters whose screams can be heard on footage recorded that night.

"Mr. Martinez was tackled and arrested by the police for being out after the town curfew went into effect, but the Proclamation of State of Emergency, which established the curfew, expressly exempted reporters, including those covering the protest," the lawsuit says.

"Mr. Martínez’s paper, the Asbury Park Press, had confirmed with police earlier that day that they understood reporters were exempt. Mr. Martínez wore his brightly colored press badges on a lanyard around his neck all night so there would be no question that he was one such reporter."

The lawsuit says Martinez was driven to Belmar, along with other individuals
arrested at the protest. He was unloaded at the Belmar police station along with the others.

There, Martínez "was handcuffed to a bench as the other people under arrest were being
processed."

"When Mr. Martínez was finally called to be processed at Belmar, the local officer taking his belongings noticed the press badges dangling from his neck," the lawsuit says. "The officer asked Mr. Martínez whether he was a reporter. Mr. Martínez responded, now for the third time following his arrest, 'Yes, I’m a reporter.'

"That same officer took his press badges and put them with the rest of Mr. Martínez’s belongings before escorting him to his cell for the night."

While sitting in that cell, another law enforcement officer asked Martínez whether he was a reporter, the lawsuit says.

"Again, Mr. Martínez responded, 'yes,'" the suit says. "This was the fourth time since his arrest that Mr. Martinez had identified himself as a reporter.

Later, an Asbury Park officer notified Martinez that the police were going to process him and release him soon and said he would receive a misdemeanor ticket, the lawsuit says.

"In recent weeks, reporters around the country have been targeted, attacked, arrested and locked up for doing their jobs because law enforcement does not want the world to see what these journalists are witnessing," the lawsuit says. "On June 1, 2020, Gustavo Martínez, a seasoned reporter with more than 15 years of experience reporting on political protests, became the newest reporter to find himself in the crosshairs of police censorship."

The lawsuit comes a week after the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said it believes officers were "reasonable" when they arrested released Martinez last month.

The MCPO released what they called "a comprehensive internal affairs investigation into the June 1, 2020 arrest of Asbury Park Press (APP) reporter Gustavo Martinez," saying the officers "had no knowledge they were apprehending a reporter, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said.

"The officers’ beliefs, under the circumstances, were reasonable," according to the MCPO. "Although we agree that in the interest of justice and in an exercise of our prosecutorial discretion that the dismissal of the summons was appropriate under the circumstances, our investigation also revealed that the officers who arrested acted reasonably in effectuating the arrest.

That investigation also followed Attorney General Gurbir Grewal's statements last month, saying: "We will also figure out why this happened and make sure it doesn't happen again. Because in America, we don't lock up reporters for doing their job," he said.

The MCPO investigation consisted of the interviews of 21 people, including 14 law enforcement officers and Martinez, and reviews of body worn camera footage and social media footage captured during the protest, according to the MCPO.

The investigation showed that the officers who arrested Martinez reasonably believed he was one of the protestors who failed to disperse, despite repeated orders to do so, more than two hours after the expiration of a city-wide curfew, the MCPO says.

“We fully support and embrace the First Amendment protections that journalists have to report the news. Our investigative findings are in no way inconsistent with those important constitutional safeguards,” said Gramiccioni.

The MCPO says Martinez was not recognizable to officers at the protest as a reporter "due, in large part, to his attire and the absence of clearly identifiable press credentials."