North Texas’s transit authority has agreed to pay a freelance photographer $345,000 to settle his federal civil rights lawsuit alleging he was illegally arrested for taking photos of someone being treated for an overdose.

DART’s board of directors voted 14-1 last month to approve the settlement with community blogger and journalist Avi Adelman, records show.

Adelman, 63, who is known for documenting the Dallas bar scene’s late night shenanigans and other crime scenes, sued DART and the officer who arrested him in 2016.

Officer Stephanie Branch told him to stop photographing a man receiving medical care on DART property in February 2016, and she arrested him for trespassing when he wouldn't leave. The charge was dropped a week later and Branch was disciplined for making the arrest.

A federal judge in Dallas ruled in July 2018 that the civil rights case could go to a jury. DART appealed that ruling and lost. In a September opinion, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said Adelman was taking photos in accordance with DART’s photography policy, which allows such behavior as long as it doesn’t interfere with transportation or public safety activities.

“Branch did not have authority to order Adelman to depart,” the appeals court said, adding that she therefore did not have probable cause for an arrest.

A DART spokesman said that “as a matter of policy, DART does not comment on litigation.”

The lawsuit questioned whether a DART policy allowed the officer to violate Adelman’s First and Fourth Amendment rights by arresting him for photographing police activity on public property.

Dallas-Fort Worth's transit authority has agreed to pay Avi Adelman $345,000 to settle his federal civil rights lawsuit alleging he was illegally arrested for taking photos of someone being treated for an overdose on public property. (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)

The Fourth Amendment bans unreasonable searches and seizures, meaning police can’t arrest or search someone without probable cause.

“I was arrested on a bogus ‘throw-down’ charge of criminal trespass for one reason only -- to stop me from taking photographs of paramedics treating a patient in public view on public property,” Adelman said in a statement. “The subjective personal opinions of LEO [law enforcement] personnel should never be used to interfere with First Amendment activities.”

DART had attempted to get the lawsuit thrown out, arguing that Branch made a “reasonable mistake” when she thought a medical privacy law prevented Adelman from photographing the man paramedics were treating.

The case was closely watched by media and first-amendment groups across the nation. Among the groups that filed a motion in support of Adelman are the Society of Professional Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, the National Press Photographers Association, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Adelman this week criticized DART for not making its photography policy available online, “unlike dozens of transit agencies around the country.” That refusal, he said, “tells me their police officers will continue to intimidate and arrest anyone taking photographs on DART property.”

The National Press Photographers Association’s general counsel told The Dallas Morning News last year that other plaintiffs have settled similar lawsuits with municipalities for hundreds of thousands of dollars, which taxpayers get stuck paying.

The lawyer, Mickey Osterreicher, said there is “no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public place.” And if someone has a right to be someplace, they have a right to photograph, he said.

“Once again, I cannot understand why, when given the choice of doing things the easy way or the hard way, police departments and officers make the wrong choice,” Osterreicher said last week in a statement.

Adelman criticized DART for not making its photography policy available online, “unlike dozens of transit agencies around the country.” That refusal, he said, “tells me their police officers will continue to intimidate and arrest anyone taking photographs on DART property.”

Adelman went to DART’s Rosa Parks Plaza in downtown Dallas on Feb. 9, 2016, around 8 p.m. after hearing on his scanner about someone overdosing on a synthetic marijuana product called K2.

Adelman began taking photos of Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedics treating the man, who was lying on the ground at the corner of Elm and Lamar streets, court records say. He took more than 160 photos and four video clips while standing about 10 feet away, according to court documents.

Branch, who had responded to the scene with another DART police officer, approached Adelman and repeatedly asked him to leave, court records say.

DART acknowledged the officer mistakenly believed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) prohibited Adelman from taking photos of the victim.

Adelman, who believed the incident to be newsworthy, refused and told Branch he was legally allowed to photograph it, court records say.

Branch cuffed Adelman and charged him with criminal trespass.

An original version of this story incorrectly described DART as being a Dallas-Fort Worth transit authority.