Brian Harer .com

An Index of Brian Harer's 'Confusion'

in the case of The Commonwealth v. Manzelli (01-0201CR5084)

Mr. Manzelli accepted the wisdom of his Attorney that he should 'take the fifth' at trial. So the Reporter's exculpatory evidence,
\including uncut, rolled photographic negtives were never presented to the jury. To do so would have caused Mr. Manzelli to testify.
He would be then grilled by a Persecuting Attorney.

A Prosecuting Attorney is someone who is paid to put people into prison, and they'll use some mean and clever tricks to earn notches
in their often politically ambitious belts. The Prosecution embellsihed unhindered by reality. The Judge tolerated the Prosecutor's
repeated 'leading' of witnesses, which is an unethical practice of feeding them answers. Defense objects, and the jury may be told
to disregard the words, but after ten times, who can remember? 

"This is surreal. Harer comes in and makes up all this shit about me, and I want to show the jury what a lying pig he is,
and my Attorney's telling me to sit down and shut up! I sat on my precise documentary evidence...truth
...while Prosecution completely misrepresented the situation...because it was an unprovoked police attack on a Reporter. 
And you know, he was right. I wasn't strong enough to testify. I'd have needed lots of preparation to hold the truth high
above the swamp of shit that passes for a courtroom in Boston. In any fight you have to keep a clear head, and this trial
was no high-minded search for truth...it was an animalistic battle.. a boxing match. I'm a truth teller, not a fighter
...and I had to shove a sock in it!

The Reporter responds point-by-point to the accusations

I. Lies in Harer's Affidavit

"...Manzelli approached us, stood about three feet away and began taking our picture."

I was about twenty feet away, as my negatives prove. I didn't "approach,"
I stood there and composed a wide shot of the scene.
I made one exposure, the last exposure I took on that camera until it was returned to me weeks later.
Judge Sumerville ordered some of my equipment must be returned to me because it had nothing to do with the fake charges.
Harer apparently wanted very much to stop me from reporting on anything...ever.
When the equipment was returned, the mic was extremely battered, and a frame of negative had been stolen or destroyed.

"I asked Mr. Manzelli to stop taking my picture and asked him not to use any photos he had taken of me in any way, shape, or form."

Well, consistently he omits his own provocative aggression.
He's omitting here that he approached me...with a gun at his side and all, and he's pretty big.
I wouldn't characterize him as "asking" me not to exercise my right to photograph. I'd call it Intimidation.
He was threatening to sue, and making up laws to scare me.
In fact, I found this Massachusets law (MGL) supporting my intuition at the time that he was way out of line.
If this were true, that I was too close, why didn't he say "back off" instead of prohibiting pictures?
Why? ...Because he's lying!
Lying under oath is Perjury...a Felony.

"Patrolman, Badge #46..."

He says I was loud. That's because I felt I needed support and witnesses to protect me from this bizarre attack.
The large, clearly visible handheld microphone was pointed toward Harer as he spoke...That's how one typically uses a cardioid microphone.
I'm not the one with a gun. I'm not the one interfering with someone else's legitimate business.
I'm a Reporter interviewing a cop who approached me, just like I did all day. Sometimes I'm recording, sometimes I'm not.
And my mic is always visible when I'm recording. That's the way it's done.

"Mr. Kenneally, not sure of the answer, looked to me...

Notice how Harer is trying to redirect attention from what he was doing, which( he admitted in his affidavit) was attacking my rights.
Nobody, need ask Harer's permission to take or to publish such a photograph.
Can you imagine Harer pulling this on a Globe reporter? A Fox reporter?
No! But on a small time reporter with no army of corporate attorneys, because he's a troubled man, a bully.
Reporting is a constitutionally supported right, and interfering with that right through intimidation or force is illegal.
Reporting is not a licensed profession, and no press pass is required to document public activity.
Of course, I routinely honor requests not to publish. I respect requests not to phot or not to publish photographs
which are well within my rights, most photographers do. unless there's a story involved...like a false arrest.

"Then I noticed that Mr. Manzelli was holding a microphone in his left hand, angled up towards us."

Oooh! Smart!
Remember, HE approached ME! All the time I held my mic in the same position, extended...as acoustic analysis easily proves.  (I don't know what 'angled' means here. It was pointed straight at the subject as it should be.) That's what made the attack extra scary. I thought "He's doing this on mic?!" Since I had been recording for half an hour, right in front of both Harer and Riel, it was inconceivable that he was unaware of my recording activity. I wore a large frame backpack with wires and a huge photo strobe mounted on a big white extension above, where my white sign named my website in black block letters two inches high by ten inches wide. I'd been walking around with my mic either in hand, or poking out of my bag, for thirty minutes or more...right in front of him. I'd interviewd a couple of folks, too. What kind of goofball, especially a supposedly trained Officer of the Law, doesn't notice what someone he's messing with has in his hands?

And remember, I've reported among police in dangerous situations, tear gas, bomb threats, fights and paint bombs...but there's always been some degree of mutual trust, respect and obedience to the law. Harer trashed all that, and he started a fight he cannot win. All he's done is to bully and lie. All I've done is to defend and offer truth in my words, through my pictures, and in my recordings. That's what a Reporter does.

"Mr. Manzelli became nervous..."

Another unprofessional scribbling. He's supposed to record facts, not his own guesses, to show cause. And hell yeah, I was nervous! I became 'nervous' the second Harer locked eyes on me from twenty feet away with those alien reflecto specs and marched up threatening to sue, and making up laws that haven't been passed...or written.

II. Lies in Harer's Testimony

Reporter responds to Brian's Testi-moaney at Trial
(quotes are approximate, pending assembly of BMC records)
We have no support for these allegations either...
Wouldn't you think a photograph would have been produced to prove there'd been an injury?
And if someone hit a cop, why wasn't he arrested?
Apparently, they only arrest reporters, not violent people who whack cops.
And Brian plopped this Whopper-of-a-Steaming-Load at trial...  (We have this one on court tape!)
This is the final mutation of Harer's fabrications which began at MBTA Police Hindquarters.
First it was an MBTA employee, then it was a baby, then it was the disappearing woman.
Then at trial Harer added the line that the alleged woman fell to her knees!
Witness for the Persecution Victoria Riel was questioned about this disappearing woman,
and did not confirm that she'd fallen. I guess he added that after the stories were 'synchronized.'

Harer's Treatment of the Reporter in His Custody

Note: Police lying during questioning is common and legal. Thanks to Katya Komisaruk for explaining this.
And Most Shameful of all this...

The US Flag flying above MBTA Police Headquarters was in tatters,
a violation of United States Code, and a sign of MBTA contempt for our
National Banner, the very symbol of our nation, Our Laws, and Our People.

"It was flapping limply on that long, phallic pole,
 in tatters. More than anything else that day,
 it made me sad to see that"

Coming Up...Riel's Dubious Testimony

(paraphrasing, pending completion of transcript)

Sequestered, Riel enters the room. She doesn't know what Harer said.
Atorney Beck quizzes her about when she retrieved the Reporter's equipment bag.
Note the effort here appears to be not to say the word "microphone" at any cost.
Riel seems confused about the context of her own testimony, and sticks to the game plan...
"I never saw no steenking microphone!"
This denial's context is, it applies after  Harer acknowleged the  mic. 

(paraphrasing) Attorney Beck: "And what was dangling on the end of this wire?"

Riel: "I Don't Know!"

The correct answer:  "A MICROPHONE"
...An eight inch long, everyday sort of microphone.

See it right here !

REMEMBER: Cops NEVER testify against one another.