AVIS REPORTER ARRESTED
For Taking Photo of Bert Bryan
By Ed Wynn
Brant
Managing
Editor, St. Croix Avis
Tuesday
January 23, 1990 – Suspended Frederiksted Police Capt. Adelbert M. “Bert” Bryan
chased a senior St. Croix Avis reporter through the streets of downtown
Christiansted yesterday after his photograph was taken. A Virgin Islands Police
Department squad car followed and briefly detained the reporter - on the
waterfront - and at the police station.
St. Croix
Police Chief Delroy Richards has called for a full V.I.P.D. internal affairs
investigation into the shocking afternoon incident -- one that local attorneys
have called a violation of the reporter's constitutionally-guaranteed rights.
Bryan,
facing trial on charges of grand larceny and possession of stolen property on
January 31, had his picture taken by the Avis’ John F. McCarthy in front of the
U.S. District Court probation office early yesterday afternoon.
After the
photograph was taken about 1 p.m. E.S.T., Bryan wheeled around and jumped from
the court office steps – chasing on foot after the reporter drove off in his
own vehicle.
“Hey, hey,
stop!” screamed Bryan as he chased after the slow-moving vehicle. “You can’t do
that!”
McCarthy had
driven about thirty yards from Government House when he said he heard a police
siren and pulled off to the side of the road near the V.I. Tourism Office on
the scenic Christiansted waterfront.
About
seventy bewildered spectators didn’t know if what they were watching was a
made-for-TV movie or real life. They observed a nattily-dressed Bryan on the
passenger side of the reporter’s vehicle while two uniformed police officers
stood on the driver’s side.
Bryan, a
former St. Croix-elected Senator, was using his hands to try to push down the
reporter’s automatic windows as they were going up. McCarthy had held his
camera out of the open window to snap the picture of Bryan while he was stuck
in traffic.
Meanwhile,
on the other side of the car, St. Croix police officers Santiago Camacho and
George Shurland demanded to know from the reporter who he was and why he wanted
to take a photo of Bryan.
McCarthy
identified himself as a credentialed reporter for the St. Croix Avis and
produced his laminated press card for police inspection.
The
identification badge was issued to McCarthy on June 2, 1989 by the Virgin
Islands Police Department. It is personally signed by V.I. Police Commissioner
Milton A. Frett.
After
producing his press badge, Camacho informed the reporter that he needed to ask
permission from people first before taking their photograph, otherwise he was
in violation of the law.
A fourth
official, later identified as Christiansted attorney Lisa Moorhead, seconded
the motion that what the reporter had done was a violation of Virgin Islands
statutes.
Moorhead is
one of three private attorneys defending Bryan in federal court.
Camacho then
demanded that the reporter turn over his camera with the film in it.
McCarthy
refused, saying that the police would have to arrest him in order to seize his
film.
At this
point, Shurland said that he had just gotten back from vacation and that
he“didn’t want any trouble from the press.” The officer said he was primarily
concerned that one of the photos showed he and several other police officers in
a downtown Christiansted parking lot with Bryan immediately after the incident.
That Avis
photograph was taken about 12:50 p.m. yesterday on the waterfront in front of
the V.I. Tourism Office. However, Bryan and two V.I.P.D. officers pictured in
the photo have their backs turned to the camera – their faces
indistinguishable.
Bryan,
Camacho, Shurland and Moorhead then repeated that McCarthy needed to hand over
his camera. McCarthy refused again.
“You can
keep your camera,” Moorhead stated. “Just let us open the camera and expose the
film.”
“If you want
to take a photo of me, you ask first,” Bryan added. “Otherwise, ask Ray
Fisher.”
McCarthy
then asked Bryan if he was referring to Avis staff reporter-photographer
Charles“Biggers” Fisher.
“Don’t you
be f___ing with me,” Bryan replied.
A still
unidentified uniformed female wearing a Virgin Islands National Guard costume
and carrying a reporter’s notebook began taking notes and asking McCarthy why
he wanted to take a photo of Bryan.
After a
third refusal to turn over his camera or film, Camacho said:
“OK, we’re
taking you down to the police station.”
Shurland
lobbied for McCarthy to be released with just a warning, but Camacho then
seized the reporter’s press I.D. badge and informed him that he could retrieve
it at the station.
Camacho and
Shurland ordered McCarthy to drive to the Anselmo Marshall Command in
Christiansted and that they would be following behind in their marked vehicle.
Christiansted
has a series of one-way streets, so McCarthy turned right on Hospital Street,
then another right onto Company Street, but stopped to enter the Federal
Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters near Market Square. With his car
locked and engine running and the police obstructed by his vehicle, he
persuaded a top official from FEMA’s Joint Information Center to accompany him
on his ride to the Zone “C” police headquarters.
Once the
reporter and the FEMA official were escorted into the police station, McCarthy
asked a female receptionist to call Police Chief Delroy Richards at his Estate
Golden Grove Headquarters. The receptionist dialed a telephone number, but
quickly stated that Richards was not currently available.
About 1:30
p.m., Officer Camacho was informed by the receptionist that the police chief
was on the other line.
McCarthy
then heard what he interpreted to be Chief Richards’ voice on the other end of
the telephone shouting at Camacho “to let that reporter go immediately! Do you
understand me?”
After a
brief conference between Officers Camacho and Shurland, McCarthy’s press badge
was returned to him and he was instructed that he could leave the police
station on his own recognizance.
Chief
Richards told the Avis that police will conduct a full investigation of the
incident and that it will be paneled by the V.I.P.D.’s four-member Internal
Affairs Unit. The unit is composed of two civilians and two police personnel.
“The
complaint is a serious one and it definitely merits an internal
investigation,”the chief said yesterday. “I will call St. Thomas to see that
the necessary investigation begins immediately.”
The incident
was witnessed by nearly seventy baffled onlookers and tourists watching from a
safe distance on the Christiansted waterfront. McCarthy encouraged witnesses of
the event call the newspaper at (340) 712-2300 to inform the managing editor or
publisher of the events as they were occurring.
At least one
concerned citizen reached newspaper Publisher Rena Brodhurst-Knight by
telephone and Business Manager Geralda Pickering traveled from Estate La Grande
Princesse to Christiansted’s Times Square area to check on the reporter just
minutes after he was released by the police.
“I was
detained for a total of about fifteen minutes,” McCarthy told the Avis. He
added that he was unharmed during the incident.
Richards,
asked if the suspended police captain Bryan had the authority to order police
officers to arrest people while he is on suspension said that the former
Senator has no more rights or powers than any other citizen.
“He (Bryan)
is on suspension without pay pending the trial,” said the police chief. “So as
far as the Department is concerned, he is inactive as a police officer.”
Richards
acknowledged that if the events that were alleged to have occurred, in
actuality did occur, they would constitute a violation of the reporter’s First
Amendment Rights under the U.S. Constitution. Local attorneys interviewed – off
the record – agreed.
Avis
Publisher Rena Brodhurst-Knight called the incident “totally unconstitutional.”
“A news
reporter is fully within his rights to take pictures of public figures on
public streets,” Brodhurst-Knight said. “Especially when that public figure has
been charged with criminal misdeeds.”
Brodhurst-Knight
asserted that Bryan seemed to be irked at the Avis for reporting about the
former Senator’s October 18, 1989 arrest on felony charges related to
post-Hurricane Hugo looting.
“We’re just reporting the news based on
courtroom procedures and court documents,” she said. “And anyone who can’t
understand that needs to hop the first plane back to Russia.”
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