A woman who calls herself Accountability Angel on YouTube livestreamed her arrest this afternoon at the courthouse on Etna Rd. in Ottawa. Angel M. Farmer, 29, has posted videos over the last few months of courthouse security on Etna Rd. and at the downtown Ottawa courthouse telling her she can’t make videos inside the buildings. In earlier videos, security personnel have patiently told her repeatedly that she cannot take pictures or make videos in certain areas or take a camera or phone in at all in others. One of the videos lasted half an hour.
After an incident in a much shorter video today, she and Jacob M. Farmer, 28, were arrested and booked into the county jail on charges of obstructing a peace officer. Angel Farmer is also charged with battery. Her video shows that they are both holding cell phones and blocked by deputies or courthouse security at a door where a sign warns not to take cell phones in.
Angel Farmer claims in her videos that she’s exercising her First Amendment rights. She argues the courthouses are taxpayer funded public buildings and the no video rule shouldn’t apply.
On the other side of the argument are people who say not everyone who goes to a courthouse is there because they want to be and for reasons they want made public. Putting them in a video, even incidentally, can be embarrassing, violate their rights, or jeopardize their safety.
UPDATE Angel Farmer and Jacob Farmer are out of jail on bond.
UPDATE The Sheriff’s Department says the confrontation began when Angel Farmer refused to comply with a COVID-19 screening at the door. Jacob Farmer had already been inside the building to get some FOIA forms. He left and returned to the entrance when Angel Farmer started pounding on the doors. This part of the incident is not seen on her YouTube video. The Sheriff’s Department says a court officer went to St. Elizabeth Hospital with an injury.