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the two taggers will probably end up screwing him over. When at court he should attempt to tell the judge calmly that he has not seen the arrest report, nor has he had the confiscated equipment returned yet. Then ask for a new lawyer.

technically, even though he wasn’t “Vandalizing” they might be able to convince him to cop to a plea; he was there, where he wasn’t supposed to be, with two people who were doing something they weren’t supposed to – and hiding from the helicopter.

It’s assuredly an uphill battle. Especially in california, we hate taggers here.

They’ll probably try to charge him with accessory to a felony or some other asinine charge.

I’m not exactly sure on this but if he’s working as a photojournalist or artist and he’s working on a project that has literary merit, wouldn’t that protect him to some degree?
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If he was standing on public property he’d be in the clear. But he wasn’t. Someone probably broke that gate before he got there, so it’s kind of like they are the ones that caught holding the bag on it. Just because you used the broken gate doesn’t mean you did it. So they have to prove he broke the gate which i don’t think they can do, but of course one of the officers will testilie that they saw them break the gate.

If they thought he was part of a shooting they’d spend a bunch of time looking for stuff in the lot. Thinking they were going to find a gun. He propably should have kept the memory card in his pocket.

I agree the taggers are probably going to blame everythign on him.

It does sound like he needs a new lawyer. What kind of BS is that from his attorney not showing him his own arrest report. He needs to tell the judge that one.

It sounds like all the charges are already set in this case. So i dn’t think he needs to worry about other charges.
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He does need a new lawyer. He also needs to sue the public defender for malpractice.

Get a real lawer.

If he was on private property that was protected by a fence, and he entered knowing that the guys with him were going to tag the place, it should like he is rightfully an accomplice to the crime.

If someone entered private property to kill or rape somebody and a random photographer went along to take pictures I think the photographer would be just as guilty as the others.

Sounds like he is screwed.
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I don’t know about this one. Although I think they should probably let him off with a warning, he was breaking the law by at least trespassing. Moreover, he was with two guys who were vandalizing private property so I can understand why it looked bad to the cops. I don’t think the cops messed up on this one. You can’t tag along with people who are breaking the law and than complain because you got caught up in the arrest and charges. Perhaps I misunderstood what happened, but that’s my take so far.

However, I do think he needs a new attorney. I think public defenders are often overworked and unable to provide an adequate defense.
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I realize that he has already spoke some about the incident, but that is the last thing he should be doing before having a competent lawyer advising him before trial.

IANAL but my guess is he should try to petition the court for a new lawyer. Once he has a new lawyer they’ll be granted access to the report and the camera due to them being used as evidence.

Best of luck Jonas.

He needs to get a telephoto lens so he can shoot graffiti from the street like everyone else. If has to get an angle that requires trespassing get, he should take a disposable camera.

Right on.
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What he REALLY needs to do is to pull his head out of his backside and stop tip toeing through life like a pea brain!! If you’re dumb enough to put yourself into a compromising situation then you’re gonna get your ass in a sling, it ain’t thermonuclear science. Carlos, stick to your guns.

Getting arrested can get your prices to go up in the gallery. He should put it on his resume/bio and laugh to the bank. Sturges and Tunick immediately come to mind. It’s a shortcut to all that “suffering” the collectors like to hear about.

Carlos,

I understand where you’re coming from, I often get frustrated when I don’t publish reports based on what people write me when they ask for advice about what they went through as victims of police misconduct… I don’t blame you, really I don’t.

Yet, I still stand by my own policy of never doing a story about someone who writes me about what they went through until I explain the potential implications, insist they talk to a lawyer first, and then only after they give me express permission to take their story public.

Yeah, it kills me not to break an exclusive story, especially for some of the things I hear about. But I guess I figure I write about enough bad things that keeping a few to myself isn’t going to affect what I do that much, especially if it does make the difference between someone getting justice or not.

Besides, I can still remember how utterly frightening it was when a journalist visited me in jail and told me “You know, I’m going to write about you no matter if you talk to me or not… but if you don’t talk to me, the story is going to make you look really bad.”

…then having to wait a week until I heard whether it was good or bad then over a month before I could actually read it myself.
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Packratt,

There is a difference when I talk to people off the record and on the record. I always make that clear from the beginning of the conversation and I respect both sides.

The tog in question is just as guilty of vandalism as the people doing the vandalism. He knowingly entered private property to photograph a criminal act. He deserves any sentence the judge orders for him. I’m all for photographer’s rights, when the photographer is well within the legal boundaries, but this case is obviously not a photographer’s rights case.
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Some of the best photojournalism have been photos of people committing a crime.

Granted, he was technically trespassing and that’s the chance he took when he decided to take on this project, but to say he was aiding and abetting the taggers is hogwash.

I might add, it you’re gonna do the crime then be man enough to do the time.

A lot of people seem confused on this point: Trespassing, in & of itself, is not a crime. It is a civil tort. The property owner could sue Lara for trespassing, but it’s not a criminal offense. Criminal trespass (which is a crime) is a different thing entirely from merely trespassing.

In this case, I’d be more concerned that the photographer was part of the planning, organizing, or commission of the criminal act carried out by the vandals, making him an accessory before the fact. He could also be argued to be an accomplice or accessory after the fact by hiding and attempting to elude capture.
Steve Brack´s last blog ..SSBohio: #tlot #TcoT #WTF? RT @SyntheticTone: Los Angeles photographer facing year in jail 4 photographing grafitti artists .. http://ow.ly/17gK98

“Some of the best photojournalism have been photos of people committing a crime.”

Maybe so, but given that he was actually committing a crime (yes, trespassing is still a misdemeanor) while taking the photos, his defense is, at best, shaky. Sure, some of the best photojournalism photos are of people committing a crime, though the photographers taking those photos are usually (not always) smart enough to use a telephoto lens from a safe distance.

“to say he was aiding and abetting the taggers is hogwash.”

He went to the site WITH the taggers, trespassed on the property WITH the taggers, took photos of them vandalising the owner’s property, the tried to hide when the police showed up… Yeah, I’d say he’s a model for photojournalists everywhere. Give me a break Carlos.

Under the Pinkerton rule, this “photojournalist” is doomed. Frankly, what’s to prevent any person who is in the immediate vicinity of a crime occurrence (and who would be a willing participant) from claiming that they are media and are therefore protected? I don’t buy it unless they have credentials and didn’t break the law as part of the crime. (In this case, trespassing.)

In a similar hypo, suppose a self-styled “journalist” trespassed into the pentagon while recording two others who steal top secret documents? Do you think the recorder should get let off? No. Of course not. They participated.

And, I make a distinction from Bob Woodward and Deep Throat.

With all due respect, this is a horrible case for a web site to hang their hat on. With all of the civil rights cases real photogs are going through, this guy in this case is part of the problem, not the solution. He was part of the criminal conspiracy to trespass and vandalize private property. With all that said, his problems probaly really started in earnest when he tried to hide the memory card from the LEOs.
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