CityBeat is sharing a legal update on the criminal case involving its staff investigative reporter, Madeline Fening.
“We’re grateful that the charges have been dismissed and relieved that Madeline can finally move forward,” said Ashley Moor-Mahoney, CityBeat‘s editor-in-chief. “It’s disheartening, though, that a journalist working to inform her community was charged at all. A healthy democracy depends on the protection — not the punishing — of the press.”
Read the full press release from the ACLU below:
The ACLU of Kentucky and ACLU cooperating counsel Tom Pugh, Pugh & Roach, obtained dismissal of the remaining charges against a journalist who was arrested while covering a protest in Northern Kentucky at the Roebling Bridge. Today, the court entered an agreed order dismissing all remaining charges against Madeline Fening.
Fening, an investigative news reporter with CityBeat, faced only misdemeanor charges in Kenton County District Court after Kenton Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders previously abandoned a felony charge of rioting that Covington Police also lodged against her.
“We are pleased that our client has been fully exonerated,” said Bethany Baxter, staff attorney for the ACLU of Kentucky. “The press should not be punished simply for being present where the news is happening.”
“I was just doing my job,” said Fening. “I am relieved this is over, and grateful to everyone who stood with me. I look forward to publishing my full account of what transpired that day on the Roebling Bridge.”
The ACLU of Kentucky is committed to protecting individuals’ civil liberties, including those of the press.
Fening is the second of two CityBeat journalists successfully represented by the ACLU of Kentucky and Mr. Pugh. CityBeat intern and University of Cincinnati student Lucas Griffith was also arrested on July 17, 2025, and initially charged with felony rioting and several misdemeanors. His felony rioting charge was also abandoned by the Kenton Commonwealth Attorney. On October 2, 2025, a Kenton County jury found Griffith not guilty of three of the four charges they were asked to consider. They found Griffith guilty of one charge, failure to disperse, and assessed a $50 fine and court costs.
CityBeat will be publishing Fening’s account of what transpired during her arrest on the Roebling Bridge.