Don Fletcher has covered a lot of politicians, public meetings, and newsworthy issues in his 35 years as a journalist in Alabama and Georgia.

But he never would have predicted sitting down at his computer in late October and writing about himself.

That’s exactly what unfolded following an unusual — and arguably, unconstitutional — events that unfolded on Friday, Oct. 27, in the small southwestern Alabama city of Atmore.

Fletcher, 70, wrote a story in The Atmore News the next day about his arrest on a criminal charge for doing his job. And as such, he became thrust into the ongoing national – and international – conversation about press freedoms and the growing number of journalists arrested in small towns.

“Most of these press freedom groups feel there is bullying of the press going on, especially the smaller newspapers that don’t have the resources to fight lengthy court battles,” Fletcher said during an interview with AL.com last week and about one week after the criminal charges against him were dismissed. “They offered to come to our rescue. They felt what we were going through was just part of what is going on around the nation.”

Fletcher’s plight into the national spotlight came during morning hours of Oct. 27, with a knock on the front door of The Atmore News.

Two sheriff’s deputies were standing and waiting for him to answer.

“My heart was beating fast,” Fletcher said.

‘Fell into our lap’

He knew what was about to go down.

“There were rumors around town from people who were saying, ‘you’re in trouble. You wrote about the DA. You’ll be in trouble,’” Fletcher said, recalling a conversation he had with another journalist in Atmore, a city of 8,400 residents. “I shrugged it off as gossip.”

The story that led to his arrest was published in the Oct. 25 issue of The Atmore News. Fletcher’s report included details, provided by a confidential source, into an investigation Escambia County District Attorney Steve Billy was overseeing on possible misallocation or misappropriation of federal COVID money paid to seven former school system employees.

Fletcher also wrote a sidebar story about how Escambia County authorities had seized the cell phones of the four school board members who voted not to renew then-Superintendent Michele McClung’s contract.

Both stories were published a few weeks after a heated school board meeting in which board members – in a razor-thin 4-3 vote – opted not to renew McClung as superintendent. Billy was in attendance at that meeting to voice support for McClung. So, too, was Fletcher’s boss – Atmore News publisher Sherry Digmon, 73, and also a member of the school board. Digmon sided with the board members who opposed McClung.

“The story just fell into our lap,” said Fletcher, confirming that Digmon did not hand him the tip or any grand jury reports. He said the documents he received arrived about “two to three weeks” before the story was published. Fletcher also said Digmon reviewed the information before they agreed to print the story that led to the arrests.

“I felt like we had good, solid backup for the stories,” Fletcher said.

‘Unfamiliar territory’

Fletcher was the only person in the newspaper’s office at the time the deputies arrived to arrest him on charges he revealed grand jury secrets — a felony in Alabama punishable by up to three years in prison.

“They said, ‘we are here to arrest you,’ and I said, ‘for what?’ and they said, ‘for revealing grand jury secrets,’” Fletcher recalls. “I said, ‘that is wild. I never was on a grand jury.’”

Fletcher said the deputies treated him professionally during the arrest. “They took me to the car before they handcuffed me where I could not be seen,” he said.

He was taken to downtown Brewton – about a 35-minute drive – and booked into the Escambia County jail during a “long and slow process.”

“I’m not going to say it was scary,” Fletcher said about sitting in a jumpsuit and seated in a holding pen with 10 other inmates. “It’s unfamiliar territory unless you’re a frequent flyer. The 10 other inmates were waiting to be tested for COVID.”

Conversations with the other inmates unfolded.

“They said, ‘you did what?’” Fletcher said, recalling astonishment that a journalist was being arrested for writing a newspaper story about the county’s top prosecutor.

“They were like, ‘man, you need to get out of here and sue him,’” Fletcher said. “That made it a more comfortable stay than it should have been. They sort of all knew each other. And I was a very quiet new guy.”

‘Created this situation’

Fletcher said while he was in jail, he attempted to make a phone call to Digmon, but no one answered. That’s when he looked up and spotted her being escorted into another holding cell while in handcuffs.

Fletcher said he immediately remembered where Digmon was at the time of her arrest. She was at Atmore Community Hospital with 89-year-old Myrna Monroe, her co-owner of The Atmore News since 2005.

Monroe, referred to in Atmore as “Miss Myrna,” had just fallen and broken her leg, and Digmon was tending to her.

The whole situation remains upsetting to Fletcher to this day.

“My biggest worry was Digmon was in handcuffs, Miss Myrna was in the hospital and Steve Billy created this situation,” Fletcher said.

Billy, who recused himself from the case in February, has not responded to any requests for comment to AL.com and other publications. Fletcher said in his eight years with The Atmore News, Billy has not returned any of his phone calls or emails for a comment related to his public office as District Attorney.

Billy, a Republican, was elected as a Democrat to the Escambia County District Attorney’s Office in 2004. He had been re-elected in 2010 and 2016, before switching political parties. During the October school board meeting, he blasted the board for not renewing superintendent McClung’s contract, calling it “Washington politics brought to Escambia County, Alabama,” according to Fletcher’s reporting. He also was quoted at the time for saying while he doesn’t control much in Escambia County, but he does control the grand jury and that he intended to bring matters before them for consideration.

Those matters included indictments for revealing grand jury secrets against Fletcher; Digmon; Veronica Fore, 48, a school bookkeeper; and Cindy Jackson, 73, who is also on the Escambia County school board. All charges on revealing grand jury secrets were officially dismissed last week.

Fletcher also blames Billy for trying to keep him and Digmon incarcerated for over 72 hours when they were booked into jail.

Fletcher credits Charles Jackson, husband of Cindy Jackson, for the early release. Fletcher said Jackson, a retired Marine colonel, heard about the arrests and was able to get the released from jail around 8:30 or 9 p.m. on Oct. 27.

On Monday, Oct. 30, Fletcher returned to court where his bond was officially set at $10,000. Fletcher paid $1,000, retained Brewton attorney Ernest White as his lawyer who – after 40 years of practicing law – found himself in his first-ever First Amendment case, and returned to the newsroom to write the front- page story about himself and his boss.

Fletcher, as the only reporter with the publication, had to write the story.

His competition was also writing about the arrests. For Escambia County, with a population of fewer than 37,000 residents, there is a surprisingly larger number of local publications. Aside from The Atmore News, there is The Atmore Advance, Brewton Standard, and Tri-City Ledger in Flomaton.

Atmore, itself, has a rarity in that it can claim to be a two-newspaper town in an era of rural news deserts. The Atmore News and Atmore Advance battle each other for scoops, and real-time news both online and in their weekly print editions. Atmore’s population is under 8,400 residents.

National exposure

After the stories ran, the calls started much to Fletcher’s surprise. The Committee to Protect Journalism, a nonprofit organization promoting press freedoms worldwide, called the newspaper “out of the blue” to tell them they had their back. A host of law firms from California, New York, and beyond called them to see if they wanted their support in a First Amendment case. Paul Farhi, a reporter at The Washington Post, visited Atmore and wrote a Nov. 27, story about the case.

“He had written similar cases on a national level and felt this was just as important, as he told us,” Fletcher said, recalling the interview at White’s Brewton office at the time.

Fletcher added, “A Facebook message came in from a constitutional attorney in Los Angeles which was wild. And then there was a Facebook message pledging support from the Union of European Journalists. That one floored me. They just simply said, ‘we support you and are here for you if you need our help.”

It was a different story at home where there were no public statements from Atmore city or Escambia County officials. “There was one county commissioner and a city council member who gave us a bit of support, but the rest of them were afraid of what would happen if they did speak out.”

No Alabama state official commented. The only state organization to weigh in was the Alabama School Board Association, which backed Digmon with support and chastised Billy’s actions for attempting to intimidate a school board over a political matter.

Sally Smith, president of the AASB, called efforts to remove Digmon from office – including a subsequent impeachment charge she faced – as the “most outlandish situation” of outside influence she has seen in a school board matter in her 37-year career with the organization.

The arrests also angered journalism groups.

“It’s atrocious that local journalists had to go through this level of political intimidation and harassment just for doing their jobs,” said Kelly McBride, Senior Vice President and Chair, Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at The Poynter Institute. “Even though this injustice was ultimately remedied, it’s the kind of thing that can have a chilling effect on future reporting.”

National media folded the Atmore arrests into the other recent high-profile crackdowns of the press:

• In Waverly, Ohio, an editor was charged in 2022 with illegal wiretapping for publishing audio testimony from a murder trial.
• In Calumet City, Ill., city officials issued municipal citations against a journalist with The Daily Southtown in Chicago for alleged violations as “interference and hampering of city employees.” The reporter’s alleged crime had to do with seeking comment from public employees on major flooding issues. The tickets were dismissed late last year.
• In Marion, Kan., police raided in August the local newspaper and the home of its owner to seize evidence amid accusations about illegal access of state records. The city’s mayor, allegedly called the journalists – along with teachers and professors — the “real villains in America.” The raid of the editor’s home had tragic consequences: His 98-year-old mother, who co-owned the paper with her son, died 24 hours after police showed up at her home.

The Marion case has captured more national attention. The newspaper has since filed a federal lawsuit against the mayor, police chief, acting chief, sheriff, and a detective, alleging a violation of the First Amendment freedom of the press.

“I stand up for those people in Kansas,” Fletcher said. “That was a real case. This story just fell in our lap. We are a little paper, and we cannot do investigative stuff. I knew what went out there was child’s play compared to (the reporting in Marion). Next thing I know, I’m in the same shape they are. And my publisher is being arrested.”

Dismissal and fallout

The charges led to indictments, but the case began to crumble earlier this year. White requested the case be dismissed because of a violation of First Amendment rights. After Billy’s recusal, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office took on the prosecution.

The cases were dismissed on April 19 – quietly – at the request of Assistant Attorney General Thomas Govan Jr.

“This is a positive development in a saga that has caused deep concern in the local and national press,” said Evans Bailey, an attorney with the Alabama Press Association. “We would like to credit Attorney General Steve Marshall and his office for appearing to recognize the crippling effects these prosecutions would have on the First Amendment and our colleagues.”

Chris Roberts, a journalism professor at the University of Alabama, said he would have preferred Marshall, a Republican and an Atmore native, release a statement or a press release condemning the case.

“A response would help police organizations and prosecutors around the state realize there is a First Amendment right at stake,” Roberts said. “Perhaps they understand that because charge was dropped quickly (after the Attorney General’s Office took on the case). But the AG’s office knows how to write a press release.”

Marshall’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Jared Schroeder, an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, said the case in Atmore might represent a circumstance in which a “government official might well know the First Amendment protections and still go forward limiting the press.”

“Increasingly, public officials are favoring scoring political points over respecting democratic institutions,” Schroeder said. “It is not for me to say whether that happened here, but overall, that is a growing trend.”

Escambia County is a Republican county where 68% of voters backed Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential election.

Fletcher said the Escambia County Republican Party’s executive committee, in its meetings, condemned school board members Jackson and Digmon – both who are Republicans – and “took Steve Billy’s banner.”

Escambia County Republican Party chair Jackie Gay said the information Fletcher provided is “is not correct. The committee has not taken sides in any of these legal matters.” She said that Jackson is on the Escambia County GOP’s executive committee while Digmon is a general party member.

Digmon has declined, thus far, to comment about the cases. While the Attorney General’s office has recommended dismissal on all charges, the judge has yet to sign off on an ethics charge filed against Digmon alleging she used her public office for personal gain.

Robbyn Taylor director of the Hall School of Journalism & Communication at Troy University, said in cases where freedom of the press is suppressed under the guise of false legal claims, it’s often not about a misunderstanding of the law.

“From our highest office, people were told journalists were an ‘enemy of the American people,’” Taylor said. “That continued sentiment from political candidates and government officials has emboldened people to act with hostility toward journalists.”

Fighting back?

Fletcher said he has had to borrow money to pay for his legal bills. He’s looking to see if the state will repay some of his legal fees. “Otherwise, I’m doing what I can and working as much as I can, hope that my social security check comes in and pay when I can.”

He remains uncertain if he will pursue a counter lawsuit against Billy.

Schroeder said Fletcher and Digmon have a case if they wanted to pursue it. “People who have wrongly had their First Amendment rights violated for no good reasons often sue. The calculations for a news organization in a situation like this will be influenced by a lot of factors. One of the biggest – does the news organization want to be the center of a lawsuit against a public official? Do they want to become part of the story? On the other hand, the lawsuit could help pay for financial losses that stemmed from the public official’s actions.”

Taylor said it’s not a question of whether the journalists involved could sue. “I think it’s more of a question of should they sue,” she said.

“These journalists have had legal fees and likely suffered from other financial and personal stress. However, more importantly, their credibility was brought into question – and as a journalist that is paramount,” Taylor said. “If people don’t trust you, it’s almost impossible to do your job. I think there have to be consequences for false legal claims and other hostilities toward media professionals. Journalists, and the news industry as a whole, need to fight back.

“Continued actions of unwarranted arrests, raids and violence across the country could potentially deter journalists from pursuing the truth out of fear of retaliation – and an uninformed public is a detriment to our democracy.”

Miss Myrna

Fletcher remains upset with Billy’s actions, and their timing and how it resulted in Miss Myrna being alone in a hospital room while her co-owner at The Atmore News was handcuffed and taken to jail.

“She’s probably the hardest working one of the bunch,” Fletcher said about the 89-year-old Miss Myrna, who continues to work at the newspaper. “She does all the bookkeeping. The subscription management. She handles the mail. She greets customers at the front door. She’s amazing.”

Fletcher said Monroe is so popular in Atmore, they have named a salad luncheon after her.

He added, “She broke her leg above her knee. She is fine now. She has the strongest constitution of anyone I’ve met. She does use a walker. She is ambulatory. But she is embarrassed for every one of us involved with this. She’s a Southern lady, but this embarrassed the heck out of her, and she’s been supportive the whole time.”

Fletcher said he is not retiring on either Monroe or Digmon anytime soon.

“My plan is to work no longer than 15 more years and retire,” Fletcher said, chuckling. “I’ll ride as long as my eyes and fingers are coordinated to work the keypad. I love it.”