ATLANTA (AP) - A security guard for Justin Bieber admitted to taking a camera from a photographer but told officers he wanted only to delete photos taken outside an arcade the singer had visited, according to police documents released Wednesday.
Photographer Jason Winslow was in a parking lot outside the Sandy Springs Funhouse family entertainment complex when security guard Hugo Hesny told him to leave, according to a police report. Winslow continued to shoot photos from farther away. Hesny then chased him, cut him off, opened the door of Winslow’s vehicle, took Winslow’s camera and drove away, the photographer told police.
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan said a judge set Hugo Hesny’s bond at $15,000 on a felony charge. Flanagan said the 32-year-old will likely be released sometime Wednesday.
Andrew Schwartz, an attorney who represented Hesny at his bond hearing in Atlanta, did not immediately return an email and phone call seeking comment.
Elias Hilal of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., an attorney who represents Hesny in an unrelated case in Florida, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he hasn’t had an opportunity to review the police reports.
A representative for Bieber did not immediately return an email seeking comment Wednesday.
Bieber was not outside and was not part of the argument, police said.
Police responded to the arcade around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday after Winslow called 911. When an officer questioned Hesny about the incident, he admitted chasing Winslow in a Cadillac Escalade and to opening the door of Winslow’s vehicle but denied taking the camera, the police report says.
An officer asked to search the Escalade Hesny was driving, but the camera was not found inside. Winslow said he thought the camera might be in another Escalade that had since left the scene, the police report says.
Another officer pulled over the other Escalade, and the camera was found inside, the police report says. A small amount of marijuana and two large, glass pipes were also found in the SUV, though police said no drug charges were filed.
Shortly after the camera was found, Hesny admitted to an officer that he took it, the police report says. Hesny told the officer he didn’t intend to keep the camera and wanted only to delete the photos.
Hesny said he hid the camera in another Escalade without telling the driver and then told the driver to drive away, according to the report.
Police said in a news release Tuesday that the driver of the second SUV had also been charged with a felony. But Sandy Springs police Capt. Steve Rose said Wednesday that driver had only been detained for an interview and was released without being charged.
Hesny also faces a battery charge in South Florida. Police said he grabbed a photographer by the neck and pushed him outside The Hit Factory recording studio in Miami in June.
Hesny grabbed photographer Jeffrey Binion by the neck and pushed him away from a spot on the roadway where Binion was trying to take pictures of an artist, Miami-Dade police said in a statement at the time.
Hesny pleaded not guilty to the Florida charge on Jan. 20 and is awaiting an April 9 court hearing in Miami in that case, according to records from the Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts.
Hesny and Bieber were outside the Miami recording studio, and Binion was taking pictures of the pop star when the confrontation began, Binion claimed in a lawsuit he filed against the bodyguard and the singer in Miami. Police did not file any charges against Bieber in the Miami incident.
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