Salt Lake prosecutors are pursuing disorderly conduct and jaywalking charges against a Fox television cameraman who covered a parade-route stabbing.
The cameraman is believed to be the first journalist in recent memory ticketed by Salt Lake police while attempting to cover a news story on a public street.Channel 13 photographer Brian W. Willie was riding with gang detectives on July 24 when they responded to a stabbing at 320 S. Main. Willie apparently left a patrol car with his camera and began walking in the southbound lane toward the stabbing scene.
An officer assisting with crowd control at the scene told the cameraman to get out of the road, but Willie ignored the commands, according to a police report written by officer Dave Hendricks.
Willie disappeared into the crowd and Hendricks said he contacted his supervisor, Sgt. Charles Gilbert, for direction. Hendricks saw the cameraman in the road again a few minutes later, escorted him to the sidewalk and cited him for disorderly conduct and jaywalking, the report states.
Salt Lake City Attorney Roger Cutler said the cameraman got in the way of a crime scene.
"He got involved in an incident and refused to get out of the way when he was ordered to do so. We're not anxious to get involved in a big brouhaha, but we need to make a point," he said.
Cutler said journalists who go on rides with police have to play by the rules for their own safety and the safety of police and bystanders.
But Willie did as he was asked to by police, and the station has the videotape to prove it, said Channel 13 attorney Jeffery J. Hunt.
Not only that, but several pedestrians and another television cameraman were in and out of the area repeatedly. "Half of Salt Lake City was in the street at that time, and the officer didn't stop and cite them," Hunt said.
Hunt and the station believe the whole incident was a simple misunderstanding and hope it can be cleared up with prosecutors.
Cutler said the prosecutor's office would consider offering a plea in abeyance to the cameraman. The deal allows a cited individual to plead guilty or no contest to a charge, which would then be dismissed later if the individual has no similar problems with the law.
Willie is scheduled to appear next in court Oct. 21.