Video shows before and after shots of Homebrew Fest bust

Ohio Investigative Unit agents confiscated 13 kegs of home-brewed beer from the Ohio University Brew Crew Homebrew Festival Saturday afternoon at OU's McCracken Field. The agents, whose agency falls under the Ohio Department of Public Safety, told student organizers that they failed to obtain the correct permit to sell home-brewed beer. The F Permit that organizers obtained to sell the beer covered only purchased, regulated alcohol. Student organizers were given six citations and all of the beer was dumped out. Officers told students they could possibly get their empty kegs back in six months.

Chelsea Toy, the reporter videotaping and photographing the bust was warned that if any of her visuals appeared on the Web, and any officers were hurt as a result of the publicity, OIU officers would be "œcoming after you." Her edited video is below. She and Athens NEWS Editor Terry Smith made the editorial decision to not include close-up shots of the agents.

Smith on Sunday lodged a protest with the Department of Public Safety, via e-mail. He wrote, "We're very concerned about threats like this, especially in a situation where our reporter was photographing and covering a story occurring in a public place. I would like to ask what authority the OIU agents have to make such a threat... I am anticipating an argument concerning the undercover status of officers, though I'm not sure how much water that will hold, considering they showed up at a public event in broad daylight, identified themselves, and made no effort to hide their identities from the several hundred people in attendance. We do consider the photos and video as legitimate news content."

Tom Hunter, director of communication for the ODPS, said Monday that the agency "takes very seriously" allegations about officers threatening news media staffers. He promised to talk to the officers and get back to the newspaper later this week. He did explain that undercover officers are always concerned that if they're identified, ongoing investigations could be compromised, though he acknowledged that it doesn't seem like the officers involved in the operation on Saturday were that concerned about concealing their identities.