Point Dume Beach Confrontations Have Deputies on Alert

By Hans Laetz

Sheriff’s deputies are keeping a low profile watch on Little Dume Beach, where photographers shooting images of a surfing Matthew McConaughey say they were attacked by a group of beachgoers and surfers in the first of two brawls that were the weekend’s hot media topic.
The actor’s beach outing on Saturday drew a dozen paparazzi, who were soon in a fracas with some 15 persons who are now known worldwide as the “surfers.”
In addition, Sheriff’s spokesperson Steve Whitmore said the department has a “summer beach team’’ that puts extra deputies on duty from Zuma to Topanga beaches, and those deputies are minutes away if any more problems erupt at Little Dume.
But the nearest road access for deputies is nearly a mile away from the area where the fights occurred, other deputies noted, making it hard to patrol.
Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said confrontations between photographers and surfers Saturday and Sunday come at a time when Malibu’s 13,000 residents feel endangered by “an increasingly reckless disregard for public safety for themselves and others, being exhibited by the paparazzi.’’
Conley Ulich said she has seen videotapes of the fights, but would not comment on them while sheriff’s deputies investigate assault-and-battery complaints filed by several paparazzi.
Whitmore said investigators want to view unedited video footage of the confrontations to sort out the charges and countercharges. The sheriff’s department hopes to obtain unedited copies this week.
Apparently edited videotapes posted by two celebrity web sites show surfers accosting several photographers as they demand that paparazzi stakeouts cease. “Nobody that lives here wants you here,’’ one surfer yelled Saturday, as others pushed paparazzi and blocked their sightlines to the surfing actor.
A photographer’s nose was reportedly broken in that fight, and a second man was kicked and dragged into the surf by two men in bathing suits. At least two cameras were smashed or drenched in the Saturday incident. Destroyed equipment estimates were over $10,000.
However, several of the surfers allege that the tapes do not show a paparazzo threatening one of the surfers with a knife and other aggressive behavior. They have filed their own sheriff’s reports and are expected to make press statements this week that counter some of the photographers’ charges.
Little Dume Cove is famous for its surf break and traditionally has been guarded by locals as a surf spot. Although ownership of the dry sand at Little Dume is claimed by a property owners association that prohibits trespassing, that claim is challenged by beach access advocates. Sand below the high tide line is public property and open to anyone, according to state law.
On Sunday at about 5 p.m, another brawl broke out on the sand at Paradise Cove. Video of the second set of fights was posted on two celebrity web sites that either had photographers on the beach or bought tape.
The Sunday videos, also apparently edited, show a group of photographers walking past a group of beachgoers and surfers at Paradise Cove Beach. Taunts are exchanged, and an object reported to be a beer bottle is seen being thrown from the group, nearly hitting a paparazzo.
Photographers are heard issuing threats of their own, as they walk in wet sand past the group of lounging young people and their surfboards. Sheriff’s deputies are seen in the video arriving at the Paradise Cove parking lot, and driving off with two photographers who wanted to file police reports.
Whitmore said the paparazzi were on public beach sand, although witnesses at the Little Dume Cove incident dispute this. Persons in public, such as at a beach, generally do not have a legal expectation of privacy, but there are exceptions that are being explored by the detectives in this case.