A citizen journalist arrested after filming a Republican rally in North Georgia can avoid jail time if she pays a $1,000 fine and completes community service, a judge said Monday as she sentenced Nydia Tisdale to 12 months probation for a misdemeanor obstruction charge.
Tisdale, 54, returned to the Dawson County courthouse two weeks after she was acquitted of both a felony obstruction charge and a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing following her 2014 arrest at Burt's Pumpkin Farm. She was convicted of misdemeanor obstruction.
Tisdale was sentenced as a first offender, meaning she won’t have a criminal record or serve jail time if she completes the terms of her sentence.
On Aug. 23, 2014, Tisdale attended a GOP rally with plans to video speeches from political candidates, and she said she believed she had permission to do so. But after her camera was on for an hour, Tisdale was removed from the rally by a Dawson County sheriff’s deputy.
