Speaker charged for comments against police at Newton council meeting acquitted

Update: Attorneys for the City of Newton dismissed the second disorderly conduct charge against Noah Petersen on Feb. 15, according to court filings.

A Newton resident arrested after upsetting city officials with critical comments at City Council meetings has the First Amendment right to criticize city employees, a judge has ruled.

Noah Petersen, 22, was arrested repeatedly at Newton City Council meetings in October 2022 and charged with disorderly conduct after harshly criticizing city police officials. Ruling Wednesday in the first of those cases to go to trial, Judge Peter Lahn issued a written decision finding Petersen not guilty.

"The court finds the defendant's statements and actions did not exceed any authority he may lawfully claim under the free speech provision of the United States Constitution," Lahn wrote.

Previously:Activist's arrests at Newton council meetings raise First Amendment concerns

The charges were filed in connection with an Oct. 3 meeting. Petersen's attorney, Gina Messamer, noted in a statement that the city still has another case pending against his client from an Oct. 24 council meeting.

"We believe the court got this exactly right and we expect the result will be the same with the second charge," Messamer said in an email. "We will be moving forward with a civil rights lawsuit soon."

A spokesperson said the city did not have any comment, including on whether it still intends to take the second case against Petersen to trial.

Why Petersen was charged

Petersen's repeated clashes with the council — he also was evicted from a September meeting, but not criminally charged — came when he took the podium during the council's regular public comment period. His comments focused on an August 2022 Newton police stop that was widely criticized online, in which a college football player was detained on suspicion of intoxicated driving. Court records show the student, who was not charged, has since filed a false arrest suit against the city.

Petersen also brought up allegations that the officer involved in that traffic stop is a domestic abuser. Court records show the officer has been subject of a civil no-contact order from a former girlfriend but has not been criminally charged.

From 2021:Citations issued for some, but not others, who disrupted Des Moines City Council meetings

Newton's council has a policy barring "derogatory statements or comments about any individual." At the Oct. 3 meeting, Petersen described the city's police department as "pro-domestic abuse" and "currently employing a domestic abuser," at which point Mayor Michael Hansen sought to gavel him down and ultimately had officers handcuff him and remove him from the room.

Judge: Petersen's actions weren't disruptive

In his order, Lahn said Petersen's statements were protected speech. While the city is allowed to impose restrictions on speech in its council meetings so long as the rules are "viewpoint neutral," the judge wrote that "by definition, the term derogatory cannot be considered viewpoint neutral." Nor were Petersen's actions — reading from a prepared statement during a dedicated public comment period — disruptive to the meeting, Lahn found.

As for the bar to comments "about any individual," Lahr noted Petersen did not identify anyone by name, just by their job titles.

"It would be difficult if not impossible for a concerned citizen to comment regarding city policies or the provision of city services without referencing to some extent an official city position," Lahn wrote. "... To the extent it could be found the defendant in this case made a 'derogatory' comment as commonly defined or a comment about an 'individual,' the court finds these terms vague and overbroad for purposes of the First Amendment."

January 2022:Des Moines City Council OKs rules limiting council members' actions, public requests

Still pending: charges for calling police 'fascist'

Petersen's second case, from the Oct. 24 council meeting, is scheduled for trial before Lahn on April 13. In that meeting, as captured on video, Petersen again criticized the police department and called for it to be defunded, but then added that "I think the top two fascists in this town, Mayor Michael Hansen and the chief of police, need to be removed from power."

Hansen again objected, telling Petersen, "you are not going to defame the chief of police of this community," and Petersen again was arrested and ejected from the meeting.

Afterward, as captured on video, Hansen told other attendees that "I make no apologies" for objecting to "disrespectful" conduct toward the council and city staff, and suggested that Petersen and those who agree with him "go do your activism somewhere where somebody cares."

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.