BENTONVILLE -- Benton County Sheriff Kelley Cradduck threatened to arrest a Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter if he entered a news conference Friday, then relented and allowed the journalist in.
"What would you do if somebody came into your office and you told him to wait up front, then [he] said no and started wandering around wherever he wanted to?" Cradduck said in a phone interview Friday afternoon.
The news conference at the sheriff's office took place at 11 a.m., shortly after reporter Tracy Neal spoke to the sheriff at a 10:30 a.m. appointment.
Neal noticed news station vehicles in the parking lot after his appointment with the sheriff, the reporter said. He asked Cradduck if something was happening, and Cradduck replied there would be a news conference. Neal said he would stay for that. Cradduck objected, according to accounts by both.
"Look, it's to my benefit to have the newspaper there, but I didn't schedule the conference. I was told it was for the TV stations," Cradduck said. "Maybe I misunderstood, but I don't think I did."
Cradduck said he would check into the arrangements made for the news conference when his public information officer returns from vacation next week.
Cradduck wants to buy body cameras for deputies, he announced at the news conference.
Neal notified his editor that a news conference was taking place after finding out about the event. Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette photographer Jason Ivester arrived in time for the news conference. Ivester witnessed part of the exchange between Neal and Cradduck.
Both Neal and Ivester said in separate accounts that, in Ivester's words, Cradduck argued that "the television stations were there because they had inquired about a story. Cradduck said he didn't want the newspaper covering this because he was approached by the television stations."
The news conference was called at the initiative of the sheriff's office, said the assignment editor of one of the attending television stations.
"We did not make that request. This is the first time I've heard of that," Adam Roberts of KHBS/KHOG said Friday afternoon.
Tevin Wooten of KNWA attended the news conference but declined comment when reached by telephone. Both he and Roberts said requests for interviews of the television station personnel who attended the event would require approval by their station's management. Neither request by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for such interviews was granted by Friday afternoon.
"I told the sheriff that he was having a press conference in a public building, then I should be allowed to attend," Neal said. "The sheriff again threatens to arrest me, and Harold Gage with the Benton County sheriff's office steps in front of me and asks me not to go forward."
Cradduck didn't bring up the possibility of arrest until after he had told Neal numerous times he wasn't allowed to attend, the sheriff said.
"He doesn't have the right [to] ignore me," Cradduck said.
Neal, or any other Arkansan, "has the right to attend such a meeting, not as a newspaper reporter but as a member of the public," said Tres Williams, communications director for the Arkansas Press Association, an association of the state's media organizations.
"There is no legal basis for saying you're going to arrest someone for attending a public meeting," and a news conference in a public building in which the sheriff makes a news announcement meets the definition of a public meeting, Williams said.
The sheriff's office is a building with witnesses, victims and prisoners in it, Cradduck said. It's not a regular office building, and no one has the right to wander the offices and attend whatever meeting he wants even in a private building, he said. Neal "was breaking the rules in a building built on rules," the sheriff said.
"He cannot disobey me in that building," Cradduck said.
By the end of the exchange, Cradduck had told Neal: "Tracy, get your ass out of here! Now!" in the presence of those who had arrived for the conference, Ivester said.
Cradduck then asked the group if anyone else from a newspaper was there, according to the accounts from Cradduck, Neal and Ivester. Ivester identified himself. Cradduck said he didn't know Ivester or realize he worked for the same newspaper as Neal. "I thought they were from different papers, so I let them in," Cradduck said.
He assumed that if someone from another paper arrived for the news conference, that paper must have received notice, so the event wasn't just for television stations, the sheriff said. Ivester said he identified himself as being with the same organization as Neal.
According to Ivester, Cradduck "asked what paper I work for. I told him, 'The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; I work with Tracy,' while pointing to Neal. At that time, Cradduck rolled his eyes and gave body language that told Neal to come along to the press conference."
Metro on 08/01/2015