Charges Dropped Against Journalist Who Repeatedly Questioned HHS Secretary Tom Price

Charges against a journalist who repeatedly questioned U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price were dropped Wednesday, the AP reported. Daniel Ralph Heyman, a Charleston-based reporter for Public News Service, was initially charged with willful disruption of governmental processes in May when Price visited the state Capitol in Charleston. Capitol police said Heyman “was aggressively breaching” Secret Service agents when he tried to ask Price whether the Republican health-care proposal included domestic violence is a pre-existing condition. Public News Service CEO Lark Corbeil called Heyman’s arrest “an overreach.” “I’m very relieved,” Heyman said in the statement. “Facing six months of jail time for asking a question as a journalist was pretty troubling. I don’t want my arrest to have a chilling effect on other reporters because we all need to keep asking the tough questions of elected officials.”