No charges filed in Lohan-paparazzi crash

LOS ANGELES - Prosecutors investigating a car crash involving teen actress Lindsay Lohan said today they will not charge a celebrity photographer accused of ramming his vehicle into hers.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said it lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute Galo Cesar Ramirez on assault or stalking charges in a case that spurred calls for a crackdown on aggressive paparazzi.

The May 31 crash was one of several such incidents that led California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign into law stiffer civil penalties for paparazzi and their agencies when they commit assault in their pursuit of stars.

A broader investigation into whether some photographers engage in criminal conspiracy to get snapshots of celebrities was continuing, a spokeswoman for the district attorney said.

A representative for Lohan, 19, the star of such films as Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded, was not immediately available for comment.

Ramirez, who worked for one of the city's top picture agencies, was arrested near Beverly Hills after his minivan collided with a Mercedes-Benz driven by Lohan. She and a passenger were slightly hurt.

Police initially said the photographer intentionally rammed his vehicle into Lohan's car when she made a U-turn to get away from him. He was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

But prosecutors found insufficient evidence to support an assault or a felony stalking charge, according to Deputy District Attorney William Hodgman.

Based on damage to the vehicles, "it appears that, although the suspect was most likely driving carelessly when he collided with the victim's car, it was not an intentional assault", Hodgman wrote in his report.

A roll of film found in a camera taken from Ramirez' vehicle contained no pictures of Lohan or the crash scene but did contain photographs of other celebrities, the report said.

The actress was being pursued by "a number of cars containing members of the paparazzi" at the time of the crash, it added.

Other actresses including Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansson have been involved in recent traffic accidents blamed on aggressive paparazzi.

Late last year, actress Cameron Diaz and singer Justin Timberlake sued a pair of celebrity photographers, accusing the two of trying to provoke a fight in order to take better pictures. The photographers sued the couple, saying they had been assaulted.

- REUTERS