CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- An award-winning video journalist was arrested by Charleston Police Tuesday after he took pictures of Santa Claus and a choir at the Town Center Mall.
Scott Rensberger, 47, of Washington is charged with battery on a police officer and resisting arrest, according to criminal complaints filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.
According to the complaint, Rensberger slapped the hand of Charleston police Cpl. R.C. Basford as the officer attempted to block Rensberger from taking a picture of him. Rensberger then "attempted to pull away" from the officer, Basford wrote in the complaint.
Rensberger, who was hired to take photos of government buildings as a subcontractor for the IRS, had just gotten back from taking photos of the Sidney L. Christie Federal Building in Huntington. He stopped at his hotel room, then went to the Charleston Town Center Mall to eat dinner and do some Christmas shopping at about 5 p.m.
"I took some pictures of the choir singing and I took some pictures of the Santa snow scene," he said. "I take my camera with me almost anywhere."
Rensberger is a freelance videographer and in 1991 won an Investigative Reporters and Editors award and was named National Press Photographers Association Photographer of the Year. He said he takes photos of all the places he visits and sends them to his girlfriend in D.C.
He went into a store to shop for a scarf for his girlfriend when two men stopped him and told him he had taken a photo of one of their children with Santa Claus.
"I didn't even realize there were kids in the shot. It was a wide shot," he said.
Rensberger said he apologized and pulled out his camera and erased the photographs of Santa Claus and the children. He said he scrolled through the photos so the men would know there were no more photos of the child on the camera.
"I did think it was weird and it did shock me a little," Rensberger said. "I understood, too. I didn't want to upset the guy. I think it's a sad comment on the world we live in. ... It's never happened to me before."
When he was finished in the store he walked by "Santa's Cabin" again, talking to his girlfriend on the phone about what had just happened.
He saw one of the two men who had stopped him talking with police and mall security.
"I thought, how crazy is this, all these officers for taking pictures of Santa Claus," Rensberger said.
Rensberger said Basford stopped him and said, "Why are you taking pictures of kids?"
"I can't believe you are asking me that," Rensberger said to the officer. "Do you mind if I take a picture of you?"
Rensberger said he reached in his pocket and pulled out his camera and raised it to take a picture of the police officer. Basford grabbed the camera to prevent him from taking a picture, which is when Rensberger said he took his free hand and brought it up to the small camera because he was afraid it was going to drop on the ground.
According to Rensberger, Basford said, "Don't you touch me."
Rensberger said he told the officer he wasn't touching him.
"Then he grabs my left hand and takes it around my back while Santa and the kids and everyone looked on," Rensberger said. "I'm scared to death he is going to dislocate my shoulder. I'm begging him not to do that and he responded, 'If it dislocates, I'll call the paramedics.' By no means was I trying to resist arrest."
Basford took Rensberger to the ground to handcuff him, he said. Rensberger said he had an old football injury and that his left shoulder dislocates easily. He said he was begging the officer to ease up and not let it dislocate. There were at least four officers, either police or mall security, there by that time, he said.
"Every time I begged him he put it up higher," Rensberger said.
Once in a holding cell, another Charleston police officer got Rensberger some water and listened to his story, he said.
"He treated me with respect. ... He seemed sympathetic," Rensberger said of the sergeant.
Basford, who had taken his camera, interviewed Rensberger once he was in custody. The officer asked him why he'd taken a photograph of a girl still on his camera. The photo is of a choir in the Town Center Mall. It was taken from the second floor of the mall, looking down. A figure is sitting, watching the choir in the bottom left of the frame.
"I'm not even sure it's a little girl," Rensberger said. "I said, 'I didn't know it was against the law to take a picture of an officer in uniform.' He [Basford] said, 'It's not against the law to take a picture of a police officer unless they don't want you to.'"
Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster said his department's internal investigations division would look at what happened to determine if everything had been handled correctly.
"What I think the officer is saying is that he put his hand up there and [Rensberger] slapped it and pushed it away," Webster said. "We'll have internal investigations look at that. ... The use of force report will tell more."
He said Rensberger could also file a complaint on the use of force, but that so far that hadn't been done. The chief said he was withholding judgment on what happened until he knew more.
Webster said Basford was working off-duty as one of the officers that helped with mall security.
Basford had the same radios as other mall security, and likely heard the complaint come in from one of the mall security guards, said mall marketing director Lisa McCracken.
When a working journalist takes photos in the mall, they are supposed to let mall management know, she said.
"A lot of our merchants don't want people to come in and film inside their store," she said.
Mall customers can bring cameras into the mall and take pictures, she said.
"The info I received is that in this case numerous parents and Santa Claus and the Santa photo staff recognized that the individual didn't have any children with him and requested that he stop taking pictures," McCracken said. "The mall responded correctly, just to inquire to see what was going on. That's what we did and that's our responsibility."
Rensberger said he doesn't know if he will sue the department over the incident.
"I don't think I have a choice," he said. "If this guy shows that kind of force to a guy who took a picture of a choir and of Santa and a uniformed police officer in the mall, then what kind of force is he going to show someone in a dark alley somewhere where no one was watching."
When asked why he took the photo of the officer, rather than just answer his question, Rensberger said he wanted a record of who was questioning him.
"I was not under arrest and it was not illegal. ... I've taken photos all over the world and this is the only time I've ever been arrested like this," Rensberger said.
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