Second newspaper photographer convicted of obstruction, resisting

Tuesday, March 23, 1999 | 10:08 a.m.

Steven R. Keegan, 26, was found guilty on Monday by Reno Municipal Judge Jay Dilworth.

Keegan was working as an intern at the Reno-Gazette Journal when he was arrested last summer while photographing riots that broke out downtown after an event during the city annual classic car festival.

On one count, the judge said Keegan entered a police perimeter and came within a few feet of an officer making an arrest despite admonitions to get back.

The judge said Keegan also failed to put his hands behind his back when officers tried to handcuff him. Dilworth said that amounted to resisting arrest.

Kevin P. Ryan, Keegan's lawyer, argued the photographer was only trying to do his job and had not been specifically ordered to keep back from police. He said other photographers were in the area and it was questionable whether police had established a recognizable perimeter.

Keegan was fine $1,230 and ordered to perform 80 hours of community service. He now works for the Los Angeles Times and will be allowed to fulfill his community service there, the judge said.

He was the second Reno Gazette-Journal photographer convicted of charges stemming from the August melee during which more than 250 people were arrested.

The other former Gazette-Journal photographer, Mark Studyvin, pleaded no contest in November to charges of obstructing and resisting officers. In return, prosecutors dropped three similar charges and a charge of failure to register as a convicted felon.

Court records showed Studyvin, 35, had been convicted of felony marijuana possession in California in 1993. Authorities said he did not registered as a convicted felon as required by Nevada law when he moved to Reno.

Studyvin, who left the paper a few weeks after the incident, was sentenced to time already served in jail and fined $390.