ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The editor of the Alaska Dispatch website was handcuffed by U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller’s private security guards Sunday as the editor attempted to interview Miller at the end of a public event in an Anchorage school.
Tony Hopfinger was handcuffed by the guards and detained in a hallway at Central Middle School until Anchorage police came and told the guards to release Hopfinger.
Hopfinger has not been charged, but the owner of the Drop Zone, the private security firm that has been providing Miller’s security, accused Hopfinger of trespassing at the public event, a town hall sponsored by the Miller campaign. The owner, William Fulton, also said Hopfinger assaulted a man by shoving him.
Anchorage police who responded to the call said they would leave it to the district attorney’s office to decide whether to prosecute. They spent more than an hour taking statements, then left.
Hopfinger, who was holding a small video camera, said he was attempting to get a statement from Miller on why he was disciplined as a part-time attorney. After Miller walked away, Hopfinger said, he was surrounded by Miller supporters and security guards and felt threatened, so he pushed one of them away. Fulton said the man pushed by Hopfinger was not hurt.
Hopfinger said that after he pushed the man away, the guards grabbed him, cuffed his hands behind his back with steel handcuffs and sat him in a chair in the school hallway, Hopfinger said.
One of the guards grabbed Hopfinger’s video camera. Later, Hopfinger said that when he got the camera back, the segment covering the span of the arrest was missing.While Hopfinger was still in handcuffs, the guards attempted to prevent other reporters from talking to him and threatened them, too, with arrest for trespass.
The Miller campaign released a statement in which Miller accuses Hopfinger of assaulting someone and of taking advantage of the meeting to “create a publicity stunt.”
A police spokesman told The Associated Press that if charges are pursued, it’s possible Hopfinger could face a trespassing charge or that security could face an assault charge.
Miller has criticized the Dispatch, an online newspaper, for coverage he deems too negative.
