A Twin Cities independent journalist and one of the founders of Minnesota’s Black Lives Matter chapter pleaded not guilty to their federal charges over an anti-ICE church protest in St. Paul last month.
Freelance reporter Georgia Fort and Trahern Crews, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Minnesota, entered their pleas during a brief arraignment Feb. 17 in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on their charges of conspiracy against rights of religious freedom at a place of worship and violating the FACE Act, which typically protects houses of worship.
The charges stem from the duo’s presence at the Jan. 18 demonstration at Cities Church that interrupted a Sunday service. The protest was organized after the group determined one of the pastors, David Easterwood, is the acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in St. Paul. In videos of the protest, the group can be heard chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old woman fatally shot Jan. 7 by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis.
Fort and former CNN host Don Lemon were told of the protest in advance and documented the demonstration. Their arrests over their presence have drawn condemnation from First Amendment groups and national and local media outlets.
The hearing came days after five of the nine people charged in the demonstration pleaded not guilty to their charges, including Lemon, Minneapolis civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, military veteran Will Kelly, St. Paul school board member Chauntyll Allen, and Temple University student Jerome Richardson. The arraignments drew supporters who packed the federal courtroom in St. Paul and gathered outside the building, holding signs and leading chants.
Fort and Crews’ arraignment drew a crowd of roughly two dozen people to the courthouse chanting similar messages, including “Drop the charges” and “Support the press.”
In remarks to the crowd outside the courthouse after the hearing, Fort said her case underscores the attacks against independent reporters.
“This case doesn’t just leave me fighting for my freedom, it is the government trying to muzzle me, to make me unable to report on one of the most historic cases not just in our state, but in our country,” she said.
