COLUMBIA, 1/24/10 (Beat Byte) -- A Columbia municipal judge suspended a sentence for an MU photojournalist charged with disorderly conduct at a fire in September. In his January 12 order, Judge Robert Aulgur placed Andrew Worrall, an MU photojournalism student and Maneater staff writer and photographer, on two years of temporary probation.Worrall, a trained volunteer firefighter taking photographs at the time, refused an assistant fire chief's order to move away from the fire, which nearly destroyed a mobile home at Colonial Village Trailer Court on Rangeline Road, fire captain Larry Curtis testified.Worrall testified that he told the assistant fire chief he "had the right to be there."In addtion to suspending the sentence, Judge Aulgur refrained from entering a final order convicting Worrall of violating a city ordinance against refusing or neglecting to obey an order from a fire chief at a fire."If he [Worrall] doesn’t have any violations, which I don’t think he will, then the case is dismissed," Columbia attorney Russell Still told the Student Press Law Center News. Still represented Worrall pro-bono as a referral attorney for the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), an organization dedicated to improving conditions for student journalists based in Arlington, Virginia."If journalists have the perception that their access is being unnecessarily restricted by law enforcement on the scene, the right response is to object once, then comply and have the conversation later with the officer’s superiors," Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate of the Student Press Law Center, told SPLC news.RELATED:
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