CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / U.S. SENATE : News Team to Sue Davis Over Ads Using Denny Beating

The husband-and-wife news team that shot the dramatic footage of the beating of trucker Reginald O. Denny said they will go to court in an effort to block State Controller Gray Davis’ use of their videotape in his U.S. Senate campaign ads.

Davis campaign officials said they will continue running the two ads, which replay the near-fatal beating of Denny at the hands of members of a mob controlling an intersection in South Los Angeles. They also depict vivid scenes of arson and other images from the riots, along with photos of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy.

Television stations said they are required to run the ads Davis submitted because of federal laws covering candidates for federal office.

Bob Tur, who flew the helicopter while his wife, Marika Gerrard-Tur, filmed the incident at Normandie and Florence avenues, said: “This is highly explosive, inflammatory footage. It was meant strictly for news purposes. We would never agree to allow its use in a political campaign.”

Tur and his wife shot the footage for Los Angeles News Service, which contracts with Channel 13 (KCOP), KNX radio and other news agencies for coverage.

“We were shot at by snipers, we were in the air for 45 minutes risking our lives. We are incensed that someone would not only turn around and steal it, but steal it for a political campaign,” Tur said.

Tur’s attorney, Matthew J. Fairshter, said Davis and those who produced the candidate’s ad were committing copyright infringement by using the Denny material without permission.

“We will be filing a lawsuit unless they agree to pull it off the air. In addition, I am going to call for a federal and state investigation of violations of federal and state copyright laws and (the Davis campaign) piracy of this material,” Fairshter said.

Attorney David Nimmer, a copyright specialist assisting Davis, said he believes the ads are protected by the fair-use doctrine that safeguards freedom of speech guarantees in the U.S. Constitution in the area of copyright infringement.

Davis is waging an uphill fight to defeat Dianne Feinstein, the former mayor of San Francisco, in the Democratic primary election for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Sen. John Seymour.

The ads containing the Denny footage are the only ones Davis has used so far. They began airing Thursday, and will be discontinued until next Tuesday, largely for strategic reasons and a belief that television viewership will be down over the Memorial Day weekend. Estimates are that Davis, in just six or seven days, will spend about $1 million running the ads on television stations in cities throughout California.

Feinstein campaign officials, who had been waiting anxiously to view the ads because Davis attached great importance and secrecy to their content, were having fun with the commercials Thursday.

Kam Kuwata, Feinstein’s campaign manager, referring to Davis’ use of King’s image in his ad, said, “When Martin Luther King said ‘I have a dream,’ he was not referring to Gray Davis.”

The Denny footage also was used in ads produced by the campaign mounted by the Police Protective League and others seeking to defeat City Charter Amendment F, the measure designed to give Los Angeles elected officials more control over the Police Department. After some television stations raised objections about the ads, they were withdrawn.