A woman has filed a lawsuit against Don Lemon and other protesters after the former CNN host covered an anti-ICE protest inside a Minnesota church. The plaintiff is alleging that she suffered emotional distress because of their actions.
Per TMZ, the plaintiff, identified as Ann Doucette, claims that she was partaking in a service when Lemon, 59, and the protesters entered the church.
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, Lemon and a group of anti-ICE protesters entered the Cities Church in Minnesota during a service on Sunday, January 18. The protesters entered the church to register their displeasure with a pastor and an ICE agent identified as David Easterwood. The demonstrators paused the service, and Lemon, who is now an independent journalist, shared footage of the protest and confrontation. The protest took place after Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.
Doucette, in her lawsuit, is alleging that she was unable to “freely exercise her religion in a private place of worship” because of Lemon and the other protesters’ unlawful interference.
Doucette is seeking an unspecified amount in her lawsuit. She alleges that the protesters’ actions resulted in her suffering “severe emotional distress, fear, anxiety, and trauma.”
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The plaintiff alleges that Lemon and the protesters acted together, adding that a protester took to social media to acknowledge helping the 59-year-old with “logistics and local contacts in support of the operation,” TMZ reported.
Doucette claims that while Lemon was livestreaming some parts of the protest, he “appeared to take satisfaction in the disruption.”
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, federal agents, on January 29, arrested Lemon in Los Angeles in connection with the church protest. The 59-year-old told ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel in a previous interview that he was confronted by agents when he returned to his hotel after attending pre-Grammy events.
Lemon was ultimately charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and violation of the FACE Act, Fox News reported.
The DOJ, in the indictment, claimed that Lemon and the protest organizers made arrangements before they made their way to the church. But Lemon has claimed that he was doing his job as a journalist when he covered the protest inside the church.
Lemon’s arrest also came after a federal magistrate judge in Minnesota initially dismissed the Justice Department’s attempt to charge him. He has since entered a not-guilty plea.
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