NewsChannel 13 crew threatened with arrest at Mount McGregor

Updated: 07/24/2014 11:32 PM
Created: 07/24/2014 7:07 PM WNYT.com 
By: WNYT Staff 

http://wnyt.com/article/stories/s3513901.shtml

WILTON - A NewsChannel 13 crew was threatened with arrest on Thursday. It happened as they were working on a story about the historic Grant Cottage in Wilton where President Ulysses S. Grant spent his final days.

The cottage is located on Mount McGregor near the correctional facility that's scheduled to close this weekend.

Corrections employees who are still working at the empty prison made every attempt to stop Mark Mulholland from doing his job.

Mulholland says in more than 20 years in the business, he’s rarely encountered anything quite like this.

Grant's Cottage is located at the top of Mount McGregor. Wednesday was the 129th anniversary of Grant's death there.

NewsChannel 13 shot some of the re-enactment Wednesday and Mulholland and his photographer were assigned to go back there Thursday to get some additional shots.

As they were doing a piece on-camera, in the shadows of the empty Mount McGregor prison, a man who identified himself as a corrections lieutenant came speeding towards the crew in a car.

Mulholland and photographer Matt Soriano spoke with the lieutenant.

“No filming,” said the officer, who identified himself as Lt. Dorn.

“We’re doing a story on Grant’s Cottage,” Mulholland tried to explain.

“It doesn’t matter,” the officer continued. After a few more exchanges he then said ,“You’re going to leave the mountain now.”

“You’re telling us we can’t visit a historic site?” Mulholland asked.

“No, you’re going to have to run that through Albany,” the officer replied, saying the news crew was on state ground.

“Look, I’m not going to go around with you on this. You’re going to leave the property,” the officer insisted.

So our crew proceeded to make its way closer to Grant's Cottage.

However, another corrections employee parked his car across the road, denying and blocking the crew’s access to the historic site.

After several minutes, he moves his car to allow other visitors to get to and from Grant's Cottage and slowly inches his car along in front of our crew. Ironically, once there, Mulholland and Soriano noticed a film crew, apparently shooting a movie on the grounds of the prison.

On their way back down the mountain, as the news crew attempted to leave, Dorn had called the state police and ask them to detain the journalists and demanded their video.

“If I’m a member of the public, and I’m taking pictures of Grant’s Cottage, and there’s a facility right behind it,” Mulholland started to say before getting cut off.

“If we’re aware that facility is in the background, those photos will be confiscated,” the officer said.

Dorn told the crew if they didn’t hand over their video they would be arrested.

After roughly an hour and calls between newsroom leadership, state police, and the Department of Corrections, our crew was allowed to leave without surrendering the video.

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision released a statement to NewsChannel 13 late Thursday afternoon that reads:

"We regret that this situation escalated, however the WNYT news crew blatantly disregarded a state officer who informed them they were trespassing. Department regulations state that photographs taken while on Prison property require prior permission. This policy is for the safety of all staff, visitors and prisoners."

NewsChannel 13 wants to point out that our crew tried to leave the grounds and there are no prisoners at the facility.

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NYS Associated Press Association issues Mount McGregor statement

Updated: 07/27/2014 8:47 PM
Created: 07/25/2014 4:13 PM WNYT.com 
By: WNYT Staff 

http://wnyt.com/article/stories/s3514785.shtml

The state correctional facility at Mount McGregor is scheduled to close this weekend.

When it does, the state historic site where President Ulysses S. Grant spent his final days will face new challenges.

The only way to get to Grant’s Cottage is through the grounds of Mount McGregor.

The cottage relies on the prison for its utilities. NewsChannel 13 was working on this story Thursday when reporter Mark Mulholland was confronted by a corrections officer who ordered us to stop recording video, turn over the video we had already gathered and leave the area.

After about an hour, we were allowed to leave with our video.

A spokesman for the department of corrections issued a statement accusing us of trespassing

The New York State Associated Press Association issued a strongly worded statement on Friday condemning the actions of the corrections officer:

July 25, 2014

TO: ALL NEWS MEDIA

RE: WNYT-Ch. 13 incident at Grant Cottage/Mount McGregor prison

The New York State Associated Press Association condemns the actions of Department of Corrections officials at Mount McGregor prison in Wilton, N.Y. for interfering with an Albany TV station’s news-gathering while doing a news story on the impact the prison closing will have on the place where President U.S. Grant died.

The association, composed of newspapers and radio and TV stations throughout New York State served by AP, provides professional training, recognition and a forum for its members to discuss mutual concerns.

While we understand that measures need to be taken to ensure prison security, we do not believe that security was in any way compromised by Channel 13’s reporting. There are no prisoners on site and the prison is to close within days.

Even after the NewsChannel 13 reporter agreed to change the location of the filming, the Department of Corrections officer instructed him that he would not be able to return to the public historic site. The corrections officer threatened to call the State Police and have the crew arrested if they did not follow these orders.

When the crew tried to return to the public historic site, the entrance was blocked by a Department of Corrections car. The State Police did respond and a Department of Corrections lieutenant demanded the film crew give up its video They rightly refused.

The actions of the Department of Corrections officers were an infringement on their First Amendment rights to report the news. We believe that the Channel 13 crew is owed an apology and that news media across the state need to be assured by Department of Corrections officials and Gov. Cuomo that this incident will be investigated and disciplinary measures taken to ensure that people’s rights to a free press are not infringed. This is the most recent example of the animosity and confrontational environment that state government continues to tolerate at all levels when working with news media.

Ken Tingley
President
New York State Associated Press Association