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Chase by Paparazzi Yields No Charges

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Times Staff Writer

Prosecutors say they will not file charges against paparazzi who chased actress Reese Witherspoon from her gym to the gated Westside community where she lives.

William C. Hodgman, head of the district attorney’s Target Crimes Unit, said prosecutors agreed with LAPD detectives that although the actress undoubtedly was terrified when a swarm of photographers “besieged” her in April, there was insufficient evidence to bring charges of false imprisonment or any other crime.

“In this specific instance, we couldn’t prove any criminal behavior by the paparazzi,” Hodgman said.

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Authorities have opened a wide-ranging investigation into whether increasingly aggressive paparazzi are provoking confrontations in order to create the opportunity for lucrative “candid” photos. The Witherspoon case, however, illustrates the difficulty of making cases against the photographers, despite a recent rash of well-publicized run-ins with celebrities, including the weekend BB gun attack on a photographer staking out Britney Spears, they said.

False imprisonment charges were used successfully in 1998 against two rogue paparazzi who boxed in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, outside their son’s Westside preschool. The incident took place before Schwarzenegger became governor.

But in the Witherspoon case, police were unable to substantiate that the pack actually trapped the star of such movies as “Legally Blonde” and “Sweet Home Alabama,” they said.

“This doesn’t mean something didn’t occur. I have no doubt Ms. Witherspoon was besieged by the paparazzi that day. But through witnesses and videotapes, we weren’t able to corroborate the incident Ms. Witherspoon described,” said Det. Jeff Dunn, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Threat Management Unit.

Frank Griffin of Bauer-Griffin, one of the top celebrity photo agencies, said his photographers were not involved in the incident. The media, police and prosecutors tend to “blow out of proportion” allegations like those involving Witherspoon, he said.

“These prosecutors make a lot of noise so the politically active celebs keep supporting them.... If a crime had been committed, someone would have been charged,” he said.

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The April 16 incident began when one paparazzo, in a rental car, scraped Witherspoon’s vehicle outside her Brentwood gym. Photographers told police that they approached the actress to tell her about the problem, which had been videotaped by an observer.

Witherspoon reported that she was swarmed by paparazzi. Believing that the photographers were boxing her in to prevent her from leaving, the actress got her personal trainer to help her make a getaway, she said.

Witherspoon told authorities that the photographers followed her into the streets and tried to force her off the road. When she reached her gated community off Sunset Boulevard, the actress was again surrounded by photographers, she reported, forcing her to seek help from a security guard. Once inside the gates, she called 911 from the home where she lives with her husband, actor Ryan Phillippe, and two children.

The paparazzo who struck the car held a French passport and was staying here as a tourist, Det. Dunn said, adding that the photographer reported the car damage to the gym. Police did not identify the paparazzo and said they did not know whether he worked for any photographic agencies.

Police reviewed videotape of the incident in the gym parking lot and at the community gates, but were unable to verify that paparazzi ever detained Witherspoon, they said.

The actress, who reportedly earns as much as $15 million a film, is known as one of most hands-on mothers in Hollywood. As pictures of stars and their children going about their daily lives have supplanted glamour shots in today’s tabloids and magazines, Witherspoon and her family have increasingly been confronted by paparazzi, several sources said.

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“When she takes her kids to school, they yell vile, insulting things at her,” one source said. “One paparazzi guy even followed her into an elevator at the doctor’s and made her daughter cry.”

Dunn said cases against paparazzi were hard to prove unless a celebrity’s security people witnessed the events and were able to document the identities of the photographers or license plates of their vehicles.

Griffin of the photo agency acknowledged that “there is a renegade element in the business,” but said there were “plenty of laws to take care of them” if they crossed the line.

Prosecutors will soon have another decision to make regarding paparazzi. On Tuesday police turned over the Lindsay Lohan case for possible charges.

Gallo C. Ramirez, a celebrity photographer, was arrested June 1 on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after crashing his minivan into the actress’ Mercedes-Benz sports car. An attorney for Ramirez could not be reached for comment.

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