Free at last!

The Free Paul Demko Movement can now disband. The St. Paul City Attorney’s office has dropped a misdemeanor citation for unlawful assembly that I received while covering protests during the Republican National Convention.

A letter from City Attorney John Choi laying out the decision to dismiss the charge arrived in my mailbox today. It cites as grounds an announcement by St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman on September 19 that working journalists would not face charges if they were merely doing their jobs. Here’s the main point:

In response to the September 19th policy announcement, the Criminal Division of the Saint Paul City Attorney’s Office implemented a prosecution policy that precluded prosecution of bona fide journalists who were only cited for being present at an unlawful assembly. As a part of this policy, the Deputy City Attorney in charge of the Criminal Division was assigned to individually review each journalist case to confirm that the individual cited was, in fact, a journalist (defined broadly) and that there were no specific allegations beyond being present at an unlawful assembly. We have completed our review in the above referenced case and we believe that it is appropriate to decline criminal prosecution.

There you have it: I’m a bona fide journalist (broadly defined, anyway). Straight from the City Attorney. Perhaps I should send a copy of this letter to Norm Coleman’s campaign.