Cincinnati journalist arrested during ICE protest ordered to pay fine
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Lucas Griffith convicted of failure to disperse at July ICE protest; jury fined $50.
- Court dismissed unlawful assembly and resisting arrest; three other charges acquitted.
- Griffith covered an ICE protest over Ayman Soliman; colleague arrested, trial 2026.
A journalist who was arrested and charged while covering a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest this summer was found guilty of a misdemeanor Thursday, according to multiple media reports.
Lucas Griffith, 21, a photo intern at Cincinnati CityBeat and a University of Cincinnati journalism student, was charged with six misdemeanors July 17 while covering the protest on the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, which connects Covington to downtown Cincinnati. The charges were failure to disperse, second-degree disorderly conduct, obstructing a highway, obstructing an emergency responder, unlawful assembly and resisting arrest.
The unlawful assembly and resisting arrest charges were dismissed Sept. 17, according to court records. On Thursday, a six-person jury found Griffith guilty of failure to disperse and not guilty of the other three misdemeanors, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The jury fined Griffith $50 for the conviction, according to the Enquirer. He could have spent a maximum of 270 days in jail.
Griffith was one of two CityBeat journalists arrested while covering a protest calling for the release of Ayman Soliman, an Egyptian immigrant and former chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital who was detained by ICE July 9. Soliman’s deportation case was dropped Sept. 19, and he was freed from custody, according to ProPublica.
At least 15 people were arrested at the protest, including Madeline Fening, an investigative reporter at CityBeat. Her trial is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2026.
Griffith’s attorney, Will Sharp of the Kentucky American Civil Liberties Union, said during the trial that his client should not have been arrested and was doing his job, according to WVXU, a public radio station in Cincinnati. Kenton County Assistant Prosecutor Drew Harris said Griffith prioritized taking photos over complying with authorities, and should have known better after seeing Fening, his supervisor, get arrested.
Harris added that 74 seconds elapsed between when police gave the final warning to disperse and Griffith’s arrest, according to WVXU.
