Citizen journalist testifies: 'I felt like I was getting raped with my clothes on'

DAWSON COUNTY, Ga. — Citizen journalist Nydia Tisdale told a jury Friday she felt like a deputy was “raping me with my clothes on,” as she described the moments he forcibly removed her from recording an August 2014 political rally.

Tisdale is on trial, accused of obstructing Dawson County Capt. Tony Wooten, and is facing up to five years in prison if convicted.  She’s also charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass.

Tisdale told jurors she attended the event, as she does many rallies and city council meetings, to record them to post to her website and various social media platforms.

“I find it’s a useful service for citizens so they can understand what their government is doing,” she said.

Tisdale said she had attended a similar rally weeks before in Roswell and had no issues, so when she showed up to Burt’s Farm that Saturday morning, she expected much of the same.

“When I first arrived at the venue I was greeted by Ms. Kathy Burt,” she testified. “I explained I had attended and filmed a rally and the video was online.”

Tisdale said Ms. Burt never objected to her shooting the rally.

“She was very charming,” Tisdale said.

She said it wasn’t until Labor Commissioner Mark Butler got up to speak that a man, who she later learned was a Governor Deal campaign staffer named Mack Burgess, came up and asked her to stop recording.

Tisdale testified she told him, and event organizer Clint Bearden, that she had permission to shoot and wouldn’t be stopping her camera.

Moments later, Tisdale said she felt a hand come across the lens of her camera.

“A hostile force grabbed my forearm and yanked it off the camera ... and lifted me,” she testified.

Next thing she knew, Tisdale said, a man was “frog-marching” her across the barn, ultimately pressing her up against a counter.

“Did you have any idea this person was in law enforcement?” asked defense attorney Catherine Bernard.

“No, I had no idea,” Tisdale responded.

Tisdale testified she repeatedly asked Wooten for his name, but he refused to give it to her.

“I was quite scared,” she said of the experience. “I felt like I was being raped with my clothes on.”

Jurors saw pictures of what Tisdale testified were bruises on her elbows and arms.

“It was excruciatingly painful as he was digging his thumb into my flesh,” she said.

Tisdale testified she also had bruises across her pelvis and sought X-rays because she thought she’d broken something.

Prosecutors and state witnesses, including farm owner Johnny Burt, have maintained they believe Tisdale’s camera was “intimidating” candidates, but Thursday several top GOP state officials testified they had no issue with the camera recording them.

Burt also testified he told Tisdale to leave, but she testified that never happened.

“If the Burts asked you to leave, would you have?” Bernard asked.

“Certainly,” said Tisdale. “Nobody asked me to leave.”

Meantime, five pieces of evidence that were admitted at trial are now missing from the courtroom, but nobody could say where they have gone.

Defense attorney Bruce Harvey told a judge that he might ask for a mistrial over the missing pieces of evidence.

The jury has gone home for the weekend and closing arguments will be Monday.

Cox Media Group