As Tom Price, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, headed to a meeting at the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston on Tuesday, a reporter from the Public News Service trailed after him in a hallway.
The reporter, Dan Heyman, wanted to ask about the health care legislation the House passed last week to replace the Affordable Care Act.
With his Android smartphone in hand to use as an audio recorder, Mr. Heyman said in an interview on Wednesday, he reached over some of the staff and security members surrounding Mr. Price.
According to an audio recording Mr. Heyman provided, he asked whether domestic violence was going to be a pre-existing condition under the new legislation.
"Do you think that's right, or not?" he called out.
He asked twice more and when there was no response, Mr. Heyman said: "You refuse to answer? Tell me no comment."
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, was with Mr. Price, and at one point in the recording, a man's voice is heard saying: "Do not get close to her. Back up."
After persisting in his questions for nearly a minute, Mr. Heyman was pulled to the side by officers of the West Virginia Division of Protective Services, also known as the Capitol Police, handcuffed and charged with a misdemeanor count of willful disruption of governmental processes. He spent eight hours in a local jail before the news service posted a $5,000 bail for his release.
The arrest stirred suspicions that officers were trying to thwart his effort to ask questions, though a criminal complaint said he "tried aggressively to breach the security of the Secret Service" and was "causing a disturbance by yelling questions."
His lawyer, J. Timothy DiPiero, said at a news conference on Tuesday night that this was a "highly unusual case," adding, "I've never had a client get arrested for talking too loud or anything similar to that."
And in a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia called Mr. Heyman's arrest "a blatant attempt to chill an independent, free press."
"The charges against him are outrageous, and they must be dropped immediately," it said.
As for whether the security officials were deliberately trying to block him, Mr. Heyman said on Wednesday that he did not think so but added that their actions fit a broader pattern of antipathy toward the press.
"It's getting to the point where the security is more interested in protecting than they need to be," he said. "I think that's a mistake."
"Their job is not to protect him from uncomfortable questions," he added.
The Secret Service referred questions to the local authorities. Lawrence Messina, a spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, which oversees the Capitol Police, said there was no effort to silence Mr. Heyman.
He said other reporters were present at the time and "none of them comported themselves the way he did, according to the complaint."
Mr. Heyman, 54, who has written freelance articles for The New York Times and who previously worked in public radio, has been a correspondent for the Public News Service since 2009. The service describes itself as "an independent, member-supported media outlet that offers unique news stories to both major and alternative news outlets."
He said he pressed the question of domestic violence because it's an important public policy question. "I wasn't doing this to just make points," he said.
Alleigh Marré, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said Mr. Price was visiting with officials and community members in West Virginia as part of a "listening tour" about the opioid epidemic.
Mr. Heyman said he was there to cover demonstrators who were protesting Mr. Price's visit and was holding out his cellphone "like a reporter in a scrum."
His recording captured his voice echoing in the hall, footfalls and his labored breathing as officers took him into custody.
"You're going to beat me up and then end up on the news tonight?" he asks the officers, according to the recording.
A man who identified himself as Lt. Tim Johnson with the Capitol Police says, "Let me tell you something right now" — before he's interrupted by Mr. Heyman seeking to keep possession of his phone.
Mr. Heyman can be heard telling the lieutenant that he had been screened going into the building and was wearing a press pass. On the recording, Mr. Heyman says he was in a public space at the time, but Lieutenant Johnson counters that it was not a public area when Mr. Heyman was getting into the space of the Secret Service agents.
"So the Capitol of the state of West Virginia is no longer a public space?" Mr. Heyman asks. "Because you guys have got a problem if that's the case."
This article appeared in the New York Times, May 10, 2017
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May 10, 2017
