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Police detain 2 reporters, seize camera
(Published August 9, 2004)

By ROBERT ARKELL
Staff Writer

Two reporters from The Common Denominator were detained by U.S. Capitol Police officers Aug. 6 at two separate locations after taking pictures of roadblocks on Capitol Hill.

Kathryn Sinzinger, editor and publisher of The Common Denominator, said she was detained about 4:20 p.m. for 15 minutes by Officer William Anderson at First and D streets NE. Sinzinger said Officer Anderson would not return her driver's license and press card, which she willingly gave to him to prove her identity. Anderson said he needed to contact a supervisor when Sinzinger asked if she was being detained or being placed under arrest. Her 35mm camera was not confiscated.

Reporter Michael Hoffman said he was held by Officers James Paulin and T.F. Pezzuti at C and First streets SE, near the Capitol South Metro station, for almost an hour starting at about 4:30 p.m. Hoffman, an American University student who is serving a summer internship at the newspaper, said the officers asked him for his Social Security number and whether he had engaged in "suspicious activities in the past."

The officers took Hoffman's reporter's notebook and disposable camera, saying that they would return the photos after developing them, and interrogated him about his reporting assignment. Hoffman's notebook was returned after about 30 minutes, but the officers did not return his camera. Hoffman also was asked to empty his pockets and did so.

Hoffman said the officers "told me that, technically, I had 'done nothing that was illegal.'"

Hoffman was asked to sign a U.S. Capitol Police "Authority to Seize" form, stating that he had been "informed of my Constitutional Right NOT to consent to a seizure" and authorizing the officers to seize his camera. He said he signed the form and gave up his camera "because I was worried and didn't know what to do."

U.S. Capitol Police turned over one set of prints and the negatives from Hoffman's camera to Sinzinger at about 7:30 p.m., approximately three hours after Hoffman's ordeal began. The police said they were retaining a copy of Hoffman's photographs, despite Sinzinger's objections. Capitol police returned a second set of prints to The Common Denominator's offices on Aug. 7.

In addition to photos of roadblocks on Capitol Hill and near the World Bank in downtown Washington, Hoffman's photos included a graduation ceremony of about two dozen new Metropolitan Police Department officers that had taken place earlier that afternoon.

Sgt. Contricia Sellers-Ford, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Police, said the officers made a "contact" with Sinzinger and Hoffman. When asked if the officer forced Sinzinger to remain in the area, Sgt. Ford responded, "She did not have to give him information. She was not detained, she was just momentarily questioned. She was not forced to stay there."

Ford said that every Capitol Hill police officer has the right to make a "contact" with anyone who appears to be taking part in what the officer thinks to be suspicious activity. When asked why Officers Paulin and Pezzuti took Hoffman's reporting equipment when he said he was on a news assignment, Ford said that "this was part of the process of identifying who Mike was."

The officers told both Sinzinger and Hoffman that they were free to leave at any time, but took both journalists' D.C. driver's licenses and would not return them when asked to do so. The licenses were given back to both journalists after the officers said they had been "checked out."

Sgt. Ford said that the matter would be investigated.

"This was probably misinformation on the officers' side. We will rectify that," she said.