Bankruptcy Discussion Disrupted by Fisticuffs : Dispute: Audience member’s chin cut during scrap with cable TV cameraman filming session.

A meeting to discuss Orange County’s bankruptcy led to minor bloodshed Wednesday night.

As former County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider addressed the Committees of Correspondence at Orange City Hall, a fight broke out between an audience member and a local cable TV cameraman.

The meeting came to a brief but abrupt halt, with both combatants vowing to seek assault charges.

It all started when 51-year-old William Fitzgerald objected to being filmed for a Garden Grove news show.

Fitzgerald told 34-year-old camera operator Gil Leyvas, an employee of Paragon Cable, to stop filming the audience.

But Leyvas told Fitzgerald that he had a right to film a public meeting.

“Who are you with?” Fitzgerald demanded, trying to grab Leyvas’ press credentials.

The two men scuffled, then Leyvas landed a left hook on Fitzgerald’s chin, opening a cut that spurted blood down the front of Fitzgerald’s shirt.

Audience members--many of whom were prepared only for a bit of verbal jousting with Schneider, who was fired for his part in the bankruptcy--gaped at the scene.

Orange police were called, and officers took statements from several witnesses.

“I want to press charges,” Leyvas said. “I was just doing my job.”

Fitzgerald, however, said he did nothing more than assert his right not to be photographed.

“Soon as I pulled his badge, he want whammo, [hitting me] in the mouth,” he said. “I’m disabled. I’ve got pins in my legs. I’m not going to fight back.”

Carole Walters, the committee’s vice president, said she hoped the fight wouldn’t taint the group’s reputation as a peaceful political organization.

“We’ve been meeting 11 months,” she said, “and this is the first time anything like this has happened.”