Conspiracy Charges May Stalk Paparazzi

"The problem with it is, in theory, if two people are crossing the street and the light is red, you could file a felony case against them," said Harland Braun, a well-known defense attorney who has represented such celebrities as Steven Seagal, Roseanne Barr and Dennis Rodman. "Are you seriously going to send the paparazzi to state prison over chasing someone down the street?"

Over the years there have been flashpoints in tension between paparazzi and their targets, most notably after England's Princess Diana was killed in a crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997 when her car was being chased at high speed by photographers. That accident led to an outcry against paparazzi, later tempered somewhat by the revelation that the driver of her car was legally drunk at the time of the chase.

Griffin, who has 35 years of experience in the high-pressure paparazzi business, acknowledged: "Celebrity photographers are probably not the nicest people in the world. A lot of [paparazzi photographers] are just so-called guns for hire. They're attracted to the job because they think they can make an easy buck.... There is a cowboy element, there is a renegade element, attracted by the reward of the prices that can be paid for some of these photographs."

In any case, he said, he believed there already "are laws in place that will take care of these renegades; they just have to be more strictly enforced."

*

Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.