Court order be damned.
He took photos in the hall.
Roger Sandler banned.
3/8/95
Photographer Roger Sandler, on assignment for Time magazine, violated a court order forbidding photography in the 9th floor hallway and was banned from the courthouse.
The photos he took were of Rosa Lopez. Because he had violated the court order prohibiting photography on the Criminal Courts Building’s 9th floor, the floor where the Simpson courtroom was located, and because in doing so got pictures other photographers hadn’t gotten because they didn’t violate the order, one of them ratted on him.
If it had been his first infraction, I noted in Anatomy of a Trial, I might had give him a break. Sandler, however, had caused problems since before the trial began. Bringing more camera equipment into the courtroom that court rules allowed, taking unauthorized photos after repeatedly being told not to, constantly aggravating other photographers.
Sandler didn’t go quietly into that good night. With the backing (and financing) of Time, he filed a request for a hearing before the supervising judge who had banned Sandler from the courthouse.
The court ruled against lifting the ban, and Sandler was about to appeal that decision, when one of his unauthorized photos, which he told Time officials he had destroyed, appeared in Time sister magazine, Life. At that point, Time withdrew its support of Sandler.
Anatomy of a Trial blog 