The Region - News from Oct. 8, 1986

A free-lance photographer won dismissal of charges that she interfered with firefighters and emergency rescue personnel at the scene of a 1984 automobile accident in Whittier, but she faces retrial on charges that she disobeyed orders of a police officer. The 2nd District Court of Appeal concluded in the misdemeanor case against Patricia Ruth Olsen, 50, of Bell, that a paramedic employed by a private company is not a public officer and therefore nobody can be charged with interfering with his work or with disobeying him. A private paramedic and Whittier police claimed that Olsen disobeyed their orders to get out of the way and interfered with their efforts to free a woman who was pinned in an automobile that had collided with a truck rig. Olsen, placed on 15 months probation, denied that she disobeyed police orders while photographing the accident.