Baldwin Acquitted of Striking Photographer

Actor Alec Baldwin was acquitted Friday of misdemeanor battery charges by a jury that apparently believed he was fearful for his safety when he struck a photographer trying to videotape his wife and newborn child.

The trial pitted the celebrity’s privacy and safety concerns against the photographer’s argument that he was assaulted while taking pictures in a public street, a right protected under the 1st Amendment.

“This is something this guy invited,” a smiling Baldwin told reporters outside a courtroom at Van Nuys Municipal Court moments after the verdict.

“He wanted it to happen,” Baldwin said, pointing out that the photographer, Alan Zanger, filed a $1-million lawsuit against him the next day.

Baldwin expressed happiness that the trial is over so he can spend more time with his wife, actress Kim Basinger, and their 5-month-old daughter. He said that if he is bothered by photographers again, he will act differently: “I’m going to call the police.”

Zanger, a self-described celebrity stakeout specialist, protested that the jury was swayed by Baldwin’s glamour, despite statements by jury members that they ignored it.

“He’s smooth,” the photographer said in a phone interview. “He appealed to the jury. He’s an actor.”

The confrontation between Zanger and Baldwin sparked a debate about the right to privacy in the Information Age. Baldwin said that since the confrontation he has had to move out of his ungated Woodland Hills house to a new residence outside the city.

Other photographers who specialize in taking photographs of celebrities expressed shock at the verdict.

“It looks like it’s open season on paparazzi,” said Roger Karnbad, who earlier in the day was photographing stars at a Publicist Guild luncheon in Beverly Hills.

“It’s really upsetting. [Zanger] was on the street. He was not on private property. . . . What the hell was the jury looking at?”

Baldwin should not have been surprised to encounter Zanger when he and Basinger arrived at their Woodland Hills home Oct. 26 with the newborn infant, Scott Downie said.

“Any celebrity who is having a child in this town is very, very aware of the fact that there is a photographer who is looking for the first photos,” Downie said.

“He was acquitted,” the photographer said, referring to Baldwin. “So was O.J.”

“It sends a message of some kind,” said Chris Connelly, editor in chief of Premiere magazine, which covers entertainment.

“It’s an indication of how the press is capable of being viewed by a group of people. I suppose it’s worth looking at that, at some level, a jury would find his actions defensible.”

Baldwin was charged with one count of battery after the fracas with Zanger, who had tried to videotape the homecoming of Baldwin, Basinger and their newborn daughter, Ireland.

The jury deliberated about seven hours over two days before acquitting Baldwin, star of movies such as “The Hunt for Red October,” “The Juror” and “The Getaway.”

When the verdict was read, Baldwin slowly broke into a wide smile and hugged his attorney, Charles English.

Several jurors said they were won over by the defense argument that Baldwin acted in self-defense.

“I think he was just in fear of the camera being raised” to hit him, said juror Denise Fitch, 28, of Sherman Oaks.

The defense did not deny that Baldwin struck Zanger, or at least pushed Zanger’s camera into his face. But whether the actor was guilty of battery, which carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, hinged on whether he was reasonably fearful for his safety at the time.

Baldwin said he was highly emotional at the time and trying to protect his newborn baby from a man he feared could be a stalker or kidnapper.

To decide whether the blow was justified, jurors had to choose between conflicting stories by two very different men: The gravelly voiced Baldwin, decked out in tasteful suits, and the rumpled Zanger, who recounted his tale in a New York accent while wearing a blazer, jeans and cowboy boots.

Zanger, 51, had parked his pickup across the street from Baldwin’s house in a quiet Woodland Hills neighborhood on the day of the incident. Hunched under a camper shell with tinted windows and using a new $2,000 video camera, he recorded the arrival of the Baldwins.

Baldwin testified that he saw the camera’s light inside the truck and smeared shaving cream on the windows to block Zanger’s shot. As Baldwin walked back to his house, Zanger climbed out of the back of his truck.

Here the accounts diverge.

Zanger said he left the truck for his own safety with his camera off, lens pointed to the ground. Baldwin, Zanger testified, stormed up and eventually smacked the photographer in the face, knocking off his glasses.

When Zanger bent down to pick up the battered spectacles, Baldwin scooped them up, handed them to Zanger and kicked the photographer in the rear. According to Zanger, Baldwin told him: “Now get the hell out of here. . . . You got what you deserved.”

But Baldwin said Zanger kept raising the camera as if to continue taping, saying: “Come on, just let me get the shot.” According to the actor, Zanger abruptly raised the camera as if to hit him, and Baldwin blocked it with his left hand, knocking it into Zanger’s face.

Baldwin said he administered the boot in the rear after an enraged Zanger charged him. Zanger is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. Baldwin is 6 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds.

The prosecutor, Deputy City Atty. Jeff Harkavy, stressed to the jury that Baldwin had told arriving police he was wrong and said he was sorry. But English argued that his client was not admitting guilt but expressing polite regret.

English drew a line between “legitimate media” doing their job and “stalkerazzi,” such as Zanger.

Jurors said that Zanger seemed untrustworthy after exaggerating accounts of the confrontation in a news interview.

“We did not find him at all a credible witness,” said jury forewoman Susan Amroyan, 27, of Granada Hills.”

The jurors said they painstakingly tried to reenact the confrontation in the jury room, concluding that if Baldwin, who is right-handed, really wanted to hurt Zanger he would have struck the photographer with his right hand, not his left.

One unidentified juror held out for a guilty verdict, Amroyan said, but she was eventually swayed to acquit.

The news media was an inescapable presence during the trial, with both attorneys in their arguments referring to the reporters who swarmed outside the courthouse and watched the case in the courtroom.

Baldwin told reporters that he hoped the verdict did not send a message that it was open season on journalists, but noted that the media horde outside the court had occasionally knocked over pedestrians.

“It seems wrong to me, that fervor,” Baldwin said.