Category Archives: Good for the industry?

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Justified? Joe Miller’s Bodyguards Detain Reporter

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Alaska Dispatch founder and editor Tony Hopfinger was grabbed and handcuffed by a private security detail working for U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller on Sunday while trying to ask the Fairbanks Republican questions following a town hall meeting at Central Middle School in Anchorage on Sunday.

Hopfinger was reportedly pressing Miller on whether the candidate had ever been reprimanded for politicking while working at the Fairbanks North Star Borough in 2008. Alaska Dispatch and other media have sued for the release of records related Miller’s time at the borough. Various accounts of what happened next generally agree on this course of events:

  • Two or three bodyguards told Hopfinger to stop asking questions and to leave the building.
  • Hopfinger continued to ask questions while apparently videotaping the candidate.
  • Bodyguards told him that if he persisted they would arrest him for trespassing, but refused to identify themselves to Hopfinger.
  • Hopfinger asked why he was trespassing, as the event was at a public school. Seconds later, he was then put in arm-bar and later handcuffed and sequestered at one end of a hallway for at least 30 minutes. He was told, “You’re under arrest.”
  • Anchorage Police arrived on the scene shortly after.

Police were still trying to sort things out as this was written.

Miller had been at the school for a town hall meeting. State Sen. Fred Dyson, a Republican from Eagle River, appeared there to praise Miller, as did at least one other speaker. Miller than spent about forty-five minutes fielding questions from an audience that had been invited by Miller supporters. Hopfinger, who had learned at the last minute of Miller’s planned appearance at the public school, ducked into a hallway after the meeting to pose his own questions to Miller.

Click HERE for the full story.

Considering there were multiple agents on this assignment, stopping the individual from advancing (short of a citizens arrest) and removing the Principal (Mr. Miller) from the area would have been the more traditional approach.   It definitely would have spared the client the negative publicity he is sure to endure as a fallout from this. EsRM would provide security for him.~ES

*EDIT:  You can now click HERE for a video news report that includes interviews with the Security Agency Owner and the Reporter.

Bodyguards, Contact Front Photography, Good for the industry?, Industry Spotlight, Insider's Tips, Interviews, Media Coverage, Uncategorized, Website

Is There a Magazine for Bodyguards?

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The short answer is yes.

The Circuit Magazine is THE official magazine for Bodyguards & Security Professionals (*and I’m not just saying that because i’m the US Managing Editor).

*Well maybe I am staying that because i’m the US Managing Editor, but also because it’s true!

Every quarter we (meaning the fine folks at the North American & British Bodyguard Associations) produce a full-color magazine that covers the A-Z of the industry, everything from tips on finding corporate clients to firearm reviews to lessons learned from high risk operators — The Circuit has it all.

We’ve also made it a bit easier to order current and past issues by teaming up with BodyguardMagazines.com, so If you’ve missed any, stop by the site today and complete your collection.

Bodyguards, Celebrity, current events, Ethics, Good for the industry?

Anna Nicole Smith Bodyguard Grilled

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LOS ANGELES (AP) – Defense attorneys in the Anna Nicole Smith drug conspiracy trial attempted to weaken the credibility of a key prosecution witness by questioning him about schemes to profit from his association with the former Playboy model.

Bodyguard Maurice Brighthaupt told Monday of *signing contracts with “Access Hollywood” for a total of $50,000 to provide pictures and interviews after the Playboy model died in 2007 from a drug overdose.

He said Smith had given him a camera memory card with more than 100 photographs.

Among the pictures he provided was one of him in bed with Smith and her newborn baby, Dannielynn, he said, and images of the casket and hearse that carried the body of her son, Daniel, after his death.

Brighthaupt testified last week about drug use by Smith.

The exchange began the second week of testimony in the trial of Smith’s lawyer-boyfriend Howard K. Stern and her doctors Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor. They have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to provide Smith excessive amounts of opiates and sedatives. They have not been charged with her death.

*The defense also sought to quiz Brighthaupt about a scheme detailed in deposition testimony in which he said he and another person planned to sell pictures of the newborn girl for $1 million.

Guess we can stop here as it’s the two underlined parts that caught my attention.  While I don’t know Mr. Brighthaupt personally, some very interesting ethical dilemmas are raised by the defense as they ask the question, “is this just about the money?”  Where does one draw the line (after death?) on client confidentiality?  Is 50 thousand ok to accept but 1 Million a sign of something corrupt?  Or is it an acceptable business practice especially for an agent that may be now out of work due to a separation from his employer, except in this case it’s being played out in the media?

I tell you what, I’ll let you answer.

For the full story click HERE.