Pixiq

well, at least she’s had her 15 minutes of fame!

How do you feel about perp walks? Both as a photographer, and as a citizen.

This is why so many people hate photographers. They are so insensitive, I guess if you can sell papers or get ratings it doesn’t matter who you hurt. Why would they embarrass her like that. Taking a picture of a person at the lowest moment of their life and plastering it all over the internet.

I have to give you props for posting this Carlos, I guess you don’t just hate bad cops but also bad photographers. It’s people like this that give your profession a bad name.

What a typical idiot this woman is. She can’t accept the consequences for her own stupidity so she has to sue somebody.

I’m not feeling the pity for this woman. Stupid actions and poor planning on her part result in public humiliation and she wants to blame the judge and the cops in this case?

On this occasion, I side with the cops.

If, however, they DID do the ‘poking into her cell’ thing, that would be cause for legal ire.

Using her situation in the cell for cop entertainment may not be illegal, but it sure lacks any kind of class.

Not that I would expect much class out of most cops these days.

And I don’t know about cameras being allowed in courtrooms. The judges here in Fort Wayne have decreed no citizens shall be allowed to even have cell phones in their court BUILDINGS, much less rooms. That of course includes cameras. Court personnel and lawyers are exempt, of course.

Michael42,

Not everybody is entitled to be taking photos in a courtroom. Usually, a news photographer or videographer has to make prior arrangements and usually this footage is used as pool footage for other media outlets.

But the point is, once the media is allowed inside the courtroom, there is no expectation of privacy.

this is not unexpected of Texas police, i was once in Irving city jail with a whole family. The police officer pulled over the dad on a traffic warrant in front of the station, then in turn the son in the car had a traffic warrant. They were allowed to call someone to come get the car since it was going to get towed. Then when the wife came to pick up the car, the other son came back with a warrant, then he decided to take he wife too.
I was a trustee, i saw a lot of stuff in the city jail. My Priest from the church came to visit me on the request of my mother, then after he visited me i was picking up thrash in the booking area when a jailer asked me if i knew about the priest….
He had a 10 year old parking ticket from Dallas, so they locked him into the visiting room and booked him in.
Then there was also two incidents where people in bicycles were put in jail, one while going to work at 4am in the morning.
Everything is bigger in Texas, including the city jails.

Missingxtension – Are you serious, the cops actually had the nerve to lock up all those people who had warrants. That is a disgrace, don’t they have better things to do then execute court orders?

@Carlos

Yeah, I’m familiar with that, but last I checked, that wasn’t being allowed here locally either.

Carlos,

I mean this question sincerely and not as a smartass, but why do you redact your own personal information from the arrest reprot you posted? And would it bother you if somebody else posted the same report with your address, phone number, and date of birth clear for all to see? The first page of an arrest report is public, after all. Anybody could do so.

It seems like blacking-out that information is somewhat equivalent to not wanting a clear picture of your face posted online.

Peter,

I black out the address of any arrest report I post whether it’s me or anybody else. While it is public record, there is also an issue about safety.

I’ve had threats against my life, if you want to know the truth.

If somebody is that desperate to find out where I live, it probably won’t be hard for them to find out.

But I’m not going to make it any easier for them.

If somebody else posted my arrest report with my address on it, I would just let it go and let the chips fall as they may.

@jones “don’t they have better things to do then execute court orders”
I kid you not, Irving police has nice little system. Here in texas the police run your plates to check insurance, they also pull over anyone who looks hispanic because they enforce the 24-7 criminal alien act. They dont care that people arent criminals, they took a woman to jail because she didnt have her insurance with her. Once in jail they got the insurance paperwork over to her, by that time as soon as she was booked in. Immigration already had a hold on her. Now mind you that the police can verify your insurance before they even pull you over, so they could have checked it before she was arrested. Texas cops are increasingly arresting people for traffic violations then once in jail they release them with personal bonds. Even if they don’t have active or confirmed warrants.
The part that really worries me is that the Irving Police go around hotels/motels checking the roll and running them for warrants. I would think that the hotel/motel log is privileged information and they would need a judge to sign off on that.

Then they have the patty wagons going around on the weekends. They pull over so many people in Irving that when a cop decides to take someone it, the vans go around picking people up so the cops don’t have to go to the station. Of course this speeds up the process quite a bit. That still means that every time a police officer decides to take a person in to the station, he has to run the plates, that takes about 3-5 minutes now since they have to verify insurance now. Then after they pull you over they call for back up while they get your info. That takes about 15-30 minutes. Once back up arrives its time to get the people out of the car, then get the wrecker (usually charlies) to come pick up the vehicle. That is another 30 or so minutes. So you figure a rough estimate, it takes maybe 1-2 cops out of the streets for 1-1 1/2 hours. You multiply that by how people get pulled over on the weekends and you can imagine how much time have left over to patrol the streets. That is if the patty wagon is around, it may take longer if the cop has to go drop people off and fill out the arrest report. Just ask Carlos how long it took the police to get him to the station.
p.s. Ive even talked with someone that got arrested for public intoxication because the cab he was in got stooped.

A couple things:
First, too many on here are wrapped up in the photography is legal, and I like photos, so all other rights abuses are not worth my time.

Second, I read the story, and it sounds like a reporter may have been let in just to photograph her, not that he had access all along.

Third, her husband was drinking, and drove, he got caught, got a night in jail. That is fine, I guess (goto duiblog to see why it may not be).

Fourth, she was not driving, but a passenger in the car, and that believe it, or not is legal! She should never have been arrested for public intoxication.

Fifth, for Simon Jester she had just gotten married and partied a bit hard. It was not poor planning, and probably not stupid actions. It was more then likely just to much celebrating.
Now you may not be married, or no woman celebrated when you did get married, but many others do.

Lastly, even though the photographs of her may be legal you should still be concerned about her other rights that were abused.

MacK,

It is not uncommon for police to contact reporters when there is a newsworthy item. This was a newsworthy item.

It would have been the same had it been some famous person arrested or something else that’s newsworthy.

I agree that if she was not driving, then she should not have been arrested.

But there is no telling how she reacted when they decided to arrest her husband. They say she was belligerent. That doesn’t say much but we don’t know.

However, she is not arguing that she was unjustly arrested, so I’m giving the benefit of the doubt to the officers, which is not something I normally do.

It was poor planning. They should have planned for a driver. This wasn’t some spur of the moment decision that lead to drinks, this was a planned affair so they either should have had the reception at the hotel or have a driver.

That’s usually the way it works in the weddings I photograph.

Her other allegations are that deputies opened the door to her cell to show and tell her to other deputies.

With all the other allegations against police abuse in jails and on the streets, many which are confirmed by videos, I honestly don’t think this one has a lot of teeth.

Yes, it was rude and unprofessional but this is the mentality of many in law enforcement. And it’s accepted obviously.

Think of the case of the Ohio woman who was stripped naked on video and left naked in her cell for more than hour.

That still hasn’t been settled and there is no guarantee it will be settled in favor of the woman.

So I can’t imagine how the Texas bride’s allegations are going to have much clout.

Photography in courts is different all over the country. The courts are open to the public and are public places. But there has to be some order in them. Think of how difficult it would be if 50 people with point and shoots started taking photos, with all the flashes going off. It would disrupt the court. Also if a photojournalist was taking photos and moving every 15 seconds.

So in some ways in makes sense to limit the use of cameras. Notice I used the word use. There is a difference between possession and use.

I’m a believer that cameras and photos should be allowed. After all everything that happens in a court is public record. But I do understand the need for some method restrictions in a court room.

Holy crap who would of known two clearlake highschool gradts would be on television damn.

Just because what happened to Hope Steffey was much worse, doesn’t make the dickheads playing show and tell with her okay. Police officers should absolutely treat people humanely and w/respect…regardless of why they are jailed. Until they do, no one with any intelligence/the ability to read these stories will trust them. Police want respect? Well earn it!!! I’m sick of police officers acting like complete assholes and getting away with it w/no penalty for unprofessional and often times cruel behavior. Call me naive, but I think cops should actually BE THE GOOD GUYS–imagine that!?! What an old fashioned and evidently outdated idea!

I used to respect cops–hated to even see them depicted in movies getting shot…now I hate them. That’s what seeing Hope Steffey’s brutalization and that of others has done…why don’t more cops come out and say things like this are absolutely wrong? I used to play “cops and robbers” as a kid…the cops were the good guys. Now I’m starting to think we should have called it “rapists w/badges and robbers,” and the robbers would certainly be the lesser of the two evils.

And I do NOT believe that this woman should have been jailed…I absolutely do not believe they should have jailed her even if–gasp!–she was less than perfectly courteous to the police. I just think she didn’t know her rights…I mean, gosh and golly–did she actually get a bit tipsy at her wedding reception??? Yes, the hubby shouldn’t have been behind the wheel, but to arrest her–no, from all I’ve seen recently, I guarantee you those cops thought it would be a funny story down at the jail…it’s no accident that they were showing her off all night.

What a bunch of ignorant, power tripping creeps…