by Acacia Jane

Created on: November 01, 2008

The judge had just signed off on my media request when I tried to snap a decent shot of the defendant. When he looked at me and asked, "Are you with the press - do you have a camera?" I knew it wasn't good.

"Ye-es?" I answered, thinking to myself that he probably knew very well I was the only camera-toting reporter in the courtroom.

"Well, you know you can't shoot flash photography in the courtroom," he said. And it wasn't a question.

"It's deactivated," I said, looking to the LCD display for reassurance. The circle and slash symbol over the flash icon assured me my words were the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

The judge stared back at me. "You flashed me."

"It's turned off!" I responded indignantly.

"You flashed me!" he repeated.

Up to this point the defendant's attorney had kept silent, watching the brief exchange as if it were a tennis match, his gaze following our words as they bounced back and forth. Then, as if he couldn't keep it to himself any longer, he gave one last look at me then turned back to the judge and delivered his punch line. "with the camerajudge!"

Did I mention that the attorney in question has a reputation for being quite a character?

I don't remember much of what happened after that, but I'm certain there was laughter involved.

All joking aside though, I turned the camera to the side and snapped off a few shots. Just as I suspected, no flash! But still, I didn't know what had happened to make the judge think I'd flashed him (with the camera, of course). So there was no way I was taking another shot at getting the defendant's mug.

Later that day, a bailiff laughed anew, saying as he passed by, "You flashed me, you flashed me!" One of the court clerks also assured me it's the funniest thing she's ever seen happen in the courtroom. She confided that she was worried it was something she'd done that caused him to think I'd flashed him (again, with the camera).

Then she told me something important. The judge later described the "flash" he'd seen as a red light. Hours later, he claimed he was still seeing spots from it.

A red light? Without stopping to think, I turned the camera toward myself, stared into the business end of the lens and fired off a shot.

Within seconds, the camera captured a digital replica of my look of puzzlement and bright red spots obscured my vision.

Ah. So that's what it was, I thought. But what was that red light? My husband knows more about photography than I do, so I called him. Within seconds, problem solved - I just needed to turn off my camera's infrared auto focus illuminator light.

Now the judge won't see red anymore - and just maybe he'll never again accuse me of flashing him!

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