The city of Des Moines has agreed to pay a journalist $100,000 to settle a suit he filed against the city and a police officer claiming excessive force and illegal seizure when officers tackled and arrested him while he was covering a demonstration protesting the George Floyd murder by Minneapolis police officers in 2020.
Mark "Ted" Nieters, a freelance photographer with international experience, covered the spring 2020 protest and was tackled by Des Moines police officer Brandon Holtan, then pepper sprayed and arrested for failure to disperse.
