Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Cell Phone Stalking
Court House Style

With my wireless phone in hand I scanned the horizon, looking through a sea of 1200 heads from the list.

I could care less about 1198 of them, although they were all wearliy aware of the presence of me and my fancy XDCam.

The two faces I wanted to capture for a date with the TV News audience are however the same two faces who these others might wouuld have formerly seen if this courthouse monopoly trip landed on them on the wrong corner.

Cell Phone Stalker

Ronald Parker and Brandon Huie are both former Davidson County jailers, charged with 2nd degree murder in the violent jail death of inmate Carlos Claros Catros and both had a court appearence on Monday.

After a long morning of waiting and watching and finally asking for a fellow photog to shoot me the mugshots on my cell phone I was ready, studying the picture constantly trying to burn the image onto my corneas.

When court was getting closer to lunch and more and more people were being released until their next date with the judge another TV Photog and I got the word that one of the jailers had left through a side door, on his way to the outside.

We quickly bolted to the outside and coordinated to cover each end of the building. At the opposite end of the courthouse I ran headlong into the now familiar face Brandon Huie who promplty took a left and picked up his pace across the parking lot.

The other photog saw my pursuit and worked and angle to cut us off at the pass. When Huie saw the other TV Camera coming he jerked his Sunday coat up over his head and broke into a near run.

Two ladies were waiting for him around the corner about 2 blocks from the courthouse and I finally got in front of him when he had to slow down to get into his SUV.

One of the women in another car laid on her horn to "screw up our shots", I guess, and stayed on it until they were out of site.

I guess we'll do it again at the next court date. I'll have my cell phone.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that, from a news standpoint, you might realize that there are TWO sides to every story. The media has done all it can to hype up the sympathy for this ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT who died while in a struggle with law enforcement officers in jail. Why was he in jail? Let me list just a few of the charges...DRUNK DRIVING, hit-and-run, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest...and while he was in jail, he became agitated & violent, threatening others with a broken-off mop handle...he had to be placed in restraints because he got so out of hand!! How can you news people not see that maybe - just maybe - this is simply a case of self-defense on behalf of the officers? The inmate had to be shot with a taser gun and he STILL would not settle down and act like he had some sense. Language barrier or not, anyone can tell what is trying to be communicated in this type of situation. The officers were trying to take away a WEAPON that the prisoner was using to provoke others in the jail. But the media only wants to show the public the most sensational and attention-grabbing side of the story about this "poor imigrant" who was in this country to support his family back home. BIG DEAL!!! You people disgust me with your hot-shot stories and you make no attempt what-so-ever to gather all of the information to present a thorough report. Leave those two officers alone! They were doing their jobs, and you vultures just want to shove a camera in their faces & put them on public display as if they are the criminals. They're not!! And by the way, I am the "other lady" who laid on the horn when you were hounding Officer Huie...I should have tried to run one of you idiots over instead. How's THAT for a news story?!?

Anonymous said...

I have to say that I agree with the above statement. At this point now, I'm sure you've decided not to continue reading the following statements because they don't agree with yours. I'm curious to know, while you're busy staking out the courthouse, are you getting paid? I ask because I wonder if you've ever worked a job/career where you are expected to put your life on the line everyday! Inmates are in prison/jail for a reason, they broke the law! While I don't disagree that sometimes things happen and innocent people end up in jail by mistake, those people generally don't threaten those around them. Especially, those who are essentially their "care takers" while in jail. The media has gone crazy lately. I don't believe 95% of the stuff reported in the papers or on the news anymore. While doctors and nurses, etc are held by a code of ethics, it doesn't seem that reporters have any type of ethics, responsibility, honesty, decency, etc. They gather a few tidbits of info that may or maynot be true, twist it and turn it until it's absolutely no resemblence of what it started to be just to beat the competition in "getting the story out 1st". We already have a shortage in alot of significant professions, such as nursing. Law enforcement is not much better. I think I will see the day in my time when we have such a shortage, no where will be safe to live. No one will want to be in law enforcement, etc because everybody is "sue happy" these days. Why not? People are too lazy to work and are looking for the easy buck! What better way than to turn self defense into murder. Not only does your family get an express pass to be here legally, but they also don't have to worry about lawyer expenses because the taxpayers that live here legally and are law abiding citizens will take care of that bill, not to mention whatever comes from all of the civil suits the family's ambulance chasing lawyer choses to file! What the heck, maybe I'll take off to another country and live. Oh, yeah, other countries don't allow illegal immigrants to have more civil rights than their own citizens!! Only in America right! The Land of Opportunity!!

Anonymous said...

Lady, wont you shut the heck up and move to another country then if you so hate the USA!

Anonymous said...

Actually, I love this country! I have plenty of family and friends on the front lines fighting in the ongoing war as we speak. What I don't like, is people taking advantage of the system! And I really don't like the fact that the guy that started this page works for a news crew that I used to love and listen to every day until I found out just how biased they are! They have absolutely no idea what happened the night the inmate died. They don't have anywhere close to the officers side of the story, but they have ran rampant all over it, talking about it all the time on every newscast. They get a medical examiner who has seen the autopsy report and says the incident was nothing more than a fight and that's only broadcast one time on the 6:00pm news. Then, an officer gets his head cracked open in the same jail by an inmate and that's only reported on twice that I know of, however, they still manage to tie the officers involved in the inmate's death into that story. The only thing I'm trying to say to the media is to back off and let all sides be heard. They have a bad habit of broadcasting too much information that can get innocent people hurt really bad. Do I think that if they knew what they were doing they would care? It's sad to say, but I really don't think they do care who gets hurt in the process as long as they get their story out first.