Court throws out appeal from Asheville reporters charged with trespassing at park
An appeal from two Asheville reporters convicted of trespassing has been dismissed.
The state Court of Appeals wrote in a Wednesday opinion that it dismissed Matilda Bliss’ and Veronica Coit’s appeal over a procedural issue.
Their attorneys failed to include documentation showing how the case moved from district court to superior court, something needed to establish jurisdiction.
“The cold record before us lacks the necessary information for us to discern whether the superior court had jurisdiction,” Judge Jeffery Carpenter concluded in a brief, unpublished opinion. Judges Julee Flood and Michael Stading concurred.
With that process issue, Bliss’ and Coit’s convictions effectively stand in a case widely condemned by press freedom groups.
“We are still reviewing the decision and have no further comment at this time,” Ben Scales, an attorney for the journalists, said in a message when asked about a legal path forward.
What happened?
On Christmas night in 2021, Bliss and Coit were at Asheville’s Aston Park covering a protest for the Asheville Blade, a local opinion journalism website with an anarchist focus.
Police — there and clearing people camping at the park — charged the reporters with trespassing. A city ordinance said the park was closed.
Police body camera footage, released following a judge’s order, later showed their arrests.
“Clearly, I have marked identification as press,” Bliss said at one point to a police lieutenant.
“Clearly, you are trespassing,” that lieutenant answered.
In an April 2023 bench trial, Judge Calvin Hill convicted the reporters, finding theirs was a “plain and simple trespass case,” not one about press freedom. And there was another process issue in that short trial, Hill said: They introduced no evidence that they were journalists.
The reporters appealed and lost in a jury trial that June.
Their arrests and convictions drew attention across the country.
“The two journalists should never have been on trial,” Katherine Jacobsen, who works with the Committee to Protect Journalists, said after the superior court trial.
She added that there could be consequences not just for the Blade but reporters across the country.
“They were performing a public service and recording police activity,” she said, calling their convictions “a blatant violation of their First Amendment rights” that could “set an unsettling precedent for journalists in Asheville and the nation.”
DA says there didn’t have to be a trial
Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams noted the case’s history in a news release on Thursday.
“Long ago, the defendants were offered a pre-trial community service resolution to this matter which would have secured their accountability and dismissed the charges,” he said. “They declined the offer. It is unknown what additional steps the defendants will take at this time despite the clarity of the law.”
Even though the dismissal was thrown out on a process issue, Williams said it “reinforces the validity of the City of Asheville’s park closure ordinance as applied to ensure the continued use of public parks for legitimate public use by all members of the community.”
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.