Trial has been delayed for two Malibu surfers accused of beating up a paparazzo on the beach last summer as he was snapping photos of actor Matthew McConaughey.
“We’ve had lengthy conversations with a number of district attorneys on this case,” defense attorney Stefan Sacks informed the judge at a hearing last Friday. “There may be further investigations and further settlement talks.”
Malibu residents Skylar Peak and Philip “John” Hildebrand are each charged with one count of misdemeanor battery for their alleged involvement in the June 2008 beating of French paparazzo Rachid Aitmbareck.
Peak and Hildebrand were scheduled to face trial Aug. 7, but a judge granted the defense’s continuation request. Attorneys will return to the Malibu courthouse Oct. 9 for a trial-setting conference.
Sacks, who represents Hildebrand, declined to comment to The Malibu Times on what “further investigations and settlement talks” meant for the future of the two local surfers.
Deputy District Attorney Bill Penzin also declined to comment on the case, however, he seemed to suggest that putting Peak and Hildebrand on trial would be an unpopular decision in a city where residents are constantly at odds with paparazzi.
“How do you think the community would react if we took this to trial for two weeks?” Penzin said rhetorically when asked if a plea deal was being hashed out.
The fracas between the paparazzi and the wave riders began on June 21, 2008, when a pack of photographers staked out McConaughey as he surfed at Little Dume Beach.
Video of the incident soon surfaced on the Internet and appeared to show another pack-several young men in surf trunks-ordering Aitmbareck and other paparazzi to “go home,” beating them, and dragging the photographers into the water. The surfers say the videos have been edited out of context and do not accurately portray what occurred.
McConaughey was not involved in the altercation.
An investigation by detectives of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station led to charges for Peak, then 24, and Hildebrand, then 30, for their involvement in the melee, which also spilled into the next day when more surfers and photographers returned to the site.
Aitmbareck retained civil attorney Bryan Altman, but will wait on a decision to file a claim until after the criminal case runs its course. Altman said the photographer was traumatized by the incident and is afraid to return to Malibu.
“It’s certainly distressing to see that they continued the case,” Altman told The Malibu Times. “Mr. Aitmbareck is a victim of a crime and I don’t understand why they’re not pursuing this strenuously. They have all the facts. They don’t need to do more investigating.”
Peak appeared briefly at the courthouse Friday without his attorney, Harland Braun. He told The Malibu Times that he was hoping the case would not have to go to trial, but he declined to comment further.
Since 2006, Peak and Hildebrand have co-owned and operated Sicky Dicky Productions, a party and events planning company based in Malibu. The owners also have Facebook and MySpace pages where they communicate with their fans.
After being charged last August with battery, the surfers began selling “Free Sicky Dicky / Not Guilty” T-shirts for $25 apiece through their Internet sites to help defray legal costs.
While the surfers won’t talk about their case to the press, they have been talking to their fans. A message from “Sicky Dicky” was posted on Facebook and MySpace in November, bemoaning the “unfair situation” and vowing to fans: “We are going to fight this one to the end and feel the charges are a load of crap. The court system is one of the slowest things we have ever encountered but none the less [sic] we are innocent until proven guilty.
-Peace and Love.”
Peak confirmed in an email to the Times that the shirts had sold out, but declined to provide any details about their fundraising efforts. By Monday morning, the comments the owners made about their charges had also been removed from MySpace and Facebook.