Judge Rules Journalist Can Take Cumming Officials to Trial Over Meeting Removal

A Forsyth County journalist who alleges her civil rights were violated when she was removed from a Cumming City Council meeting for recording the proceedings can take the mayor, the police chief, and the deputy police chief to court over the incident.

According to Daily Report, U.S. District Judge Richard Story has decided that Nydia Tisdale’s case against Mayor H. Ford Gravitt, Police Chief Casey Tatum, and Deputy Chief Walter Cook can proceed, as Tisdale’s “clearly established” First Amendment rights were violated when she was removed from the meeting and had her camera confiscated.

The incident occurred on April 17, 2012, when Gravitt allegedly asked Tatum to perform “a little housecleaning” and remove Tisdale from the council chambers because she was filming the meeting. It is alleged that Tisdale was removed from the meeting and had her camera confiscated, but then returned to the meeting with another camera and was again removed.

Attorney General Sam Olens filed suit against the city later that year, claiming the move was a clear violation of the Georgia Open Records Act. A judge ruled in favor of Olens in August of this year, ordering Gravitt and the city to pay $12,000 in penalties.

Olens and Tisdale’s paths crossed again that month when the woman was forcibly removed from a Republican Party rally featuring prominent party members such as Olens, Gov. Nathan Deal and U.S. Senate Candidate David Perdue at a private pumpkin farm in Dawsonville.

Following Tisdale’s raucous removal from the event, Olens took the stage and blasted his compatriots for ejecting a journalist from their midst.

“[W]hat are we afraid of with the lady having a camera, filming us? What are we saying here that shouldn’t be on film? What message are we sending?,” Olens asked the rally.