Convention Arrest Charges to Be Dropped in ABC Case

Oct. 16, 2008— -- Criminal trespass charges filed against ABC News producer Asa Eslocker during the August Democratic Convention will be dropped by the Denver City Attorney, lawyers for Eslocker said today.

"We are enormously gratified that the Denver city attorney has agreed to drop these outrageous charges," said ABC News senior vice president Jeffrey Schneider.

Eslocker was grabbed around the throat and put in handcuffs by a Denver police department sergeant as he and a camera crew attempted to take pictures from a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and wealthy donors arriving at a secret meeting at the city's Brown Palace hotel.

"I was only doing my job, trying to cover an extremely important aspect of American politics," said Eslocker. "I'm glad this is over."

An ABC camera crew recorded the incident on tape and it has been seen around the world.

(Click here to watch video of the arrest.)

"The individual officers violated Mr. Eslocker's First Amendment rights, illegally ordered him away from the Brown Palace, wrongfully charged him with crimes and arrested him in a violent and thuggish manner," said Eslocker's lawyers Daniel Recht and Steve Zansberg.

"The general public should be outraged an offended," they said.

The lawyers said they were notified Thursday the Denver city attorney would move to drop the charges at a court hearing in Denver Friday.

"We are glad common sense prevailed," said ABC's Schneider.

A public information officer for the Denver police department said he had "no comment" on the decision to drop the charges or the allegations officers have behaved illegally.

Eslocker was part of an ABC News investigative team reporting on the connections between large donors and Democratic party officials for the "Money Trail" series on the ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

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