Overview
- Lemon entered his plea in a St. Paul federal court on Feb. 13 to counts of conspiracy and interfering with religious freedom, and he remains free without bail.
- A grand jury indicted nine people in total over the Jan. 18 disruption at Cities Church, with several co-defendants, including civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, also pleading not guilty and others set for arraignment next week.
- Defense lawyers moved to obtain grand jury transcripts, noting multiple judges initially declined to authorize arrest warrants for Lemon and another journalist before prosecutors sought indictments.
- Prosecutors told the court they obtained a search warrant for Lemon’s phone and still have the device.
- Lemon maintains he was reporting and not participating in the protest, while press-freedom groups criticize the case as risking criminalization of journalism under an uncommon application of the FACE Act.