Los Angeles Times

Times staffer arrested near Reagan site

Photograph­er had stopped his car to transmit pictures.

- By Matt Hamilton matt. hamilton @ latimes. com

A Los Angeles Times photograph­er was arrested Wednesday in Simi Valley while transmitti­ng photograph­s of former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s funeral motorcade.

Ricardo DeAratanha, 65, was arrested on suspicion of resisting and obstructin­g a law enforcemen­t officer, a misdemeano­r, according to a citation issued by Simi Valley police.

Deputy Chief David Livingston­e said police responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle near Roosevelt Court and Wood Ranch Parkway, about three- quarters of a mile downhill from the Ronald Reagan Presidenti­al Library, where a public viewing was being held for the former first lady. DeAratanha had parked by the side of the road to use his laptop computer to transmit his photos.

DeAratanha refused to identify himself and balked at providing identifica­tion, Livingston­e said.

“This is not something we want to happen,” Livingston­e said. “Had he cooperated, we would have had a different outcome.”

An attorney for the photograph­er, Mark Werksman, disputed the police account.

He said DeAratanha provided “multiple unassailab­le press credential­s,” including identifica­tion cards issued by The Times and the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department.

The officers “kept asking him for more ID,” Werksman said. “Then they ordered him out of the car when they weren’t satisfied with his answer.”

At some point, Werksman said, the photograph­er suggested the officers were harassing him because of his ethnicity. DeAratanha is “Brazilian ... of tan com- plexion,” he said.

“They resented that he would question their motives,” Werksman said. “They swarmed him and threw him to the ground and cuffed him.”

Livingston­e denied that race or ethnicity played a role in the incident and said officers were responding to a report of suspicious activity at a “high- security event.”

A neighbor had reported that a tarp was partly covering the car and that a man inside was bent over with a cover on his head, Livingston­e said.

After he was arrested, DeAratanha explained to off icers that he was a photojourn­alist, and a command- er allowed him to f inish sending his photos, Livingston­e said.

The photograph­er had been using the tarp to provide shade so he could read the screen of his computer as he transmitte­d his photos, his attorney said.

DeAratanha, who joined The Times in 1989, was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for a sprained elbow.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office has 30 days to decide whether to f ile charges. DeAratanha, who was cited and released, is scheduled to be arraigned April 7.

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