Cameraman banned from Hernandez trial

FALL RIVER, Mass. — There was no verdict in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial Thursday afternoon, but there was a ban issued by the judge.

Justice Susan Garsh ruled that a Boston television cameraman cannot return to the courthouse “as a photographer” after he admitted to following a bus carrying the deliberating jurors to a parking lot where they begin and end each day. The order will be lifted after the trial ends. Two jurors — one man and one woman — told Garsh they noticed WHDH-TV’s Ford Explorer — driven by cameraman Robert Cusanelli — at the lot where they returned to their vehicles following the first full day of deliberations on Wednesday. They expressed concern about the SUV turning around and coming back to the lot.

Cusanelli was accompanied by attorney Michael Gass in court. Garsh, who earlier noted that the actions taken by the cameraman put the case in jeopardy of being ruled a mistrial, had Gass question Cusanelli under oath.

“I think it’s important that at no point did he have any interaction with jurors,” Gass said.

Garsh also issued a general order to all media covering the case, saying, “no person shall approach, follow, contact, harass, photograph, take down the license plate number of, attempt to influence, interfere with, communicate with or tamper with a deliberating juror or alternate juror in this case.”

The male juror took a photograph of the cameraman’s license plate and showed it to Garsh during a morning sidebar in court.

Cusanelli testified that he did not intend to interact with the jurors, only to scout the location where they might be released after they reached a verdict.

In the morning session, Garsh termed the situation an “extraordinarily serious matter.” She added that depending upon how the jurors reacted, it could have caused them to be dismissed at an early stage in the deliberation process.