LA Times Photographer Pleads No Contest to Resisting Arrest After Reagan Funeral

Longtime Los Angeles Times photographer Ricardo DeAratanha has pleaded no contest earlier this week to resisting and obstructing police during the March funeral motorcade of former First Lady Nancy Reagan. The photographer was at the scene covering the funeral for the Times and was sitting in his car transmitting photos from his laptop when police—responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle near the viewing—approached him. The photographer suggested in a March statement to police that officers were targeting him because of his race (DeAratanha is Brazilian), but the deputy district attorney said there was no evidence of that, according to the Times report.

DeAratanha entered the plea on the misdemeanor count before Ventura County Superior Court Judge F. Dino Inumerable, who sentenced the photographer to 12 months of unsupervised probation and 16 hours of community service, according to the Times. DeAratanha may request the conviction be expunged from his record if he successfully completes probation.

Related Links: 

For more details about the arrest, read PDN’s “LA Times Photographer Of Reagan Funeral Motorcade Charged After March Arrest” coverage.

For more information on photography and the First Amendment, read PDN‘s report on the legal cases photographers should know.

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