Judge calls police to shoo 'O'Reilly' crew

They are given warnings. But a producer says the judge blocked them in his driveway.

By COLLEEN JENKINS, Times Staff Writer
Published August 22, 2007

TAMPA - Circuit Judge Manuel Lopez arrived home Monday evening to find a crew from Fox's The O'Reilly Factor parked in his driveway.

The crew wanted to interview Lopez about his decision to grant bail to a man who later killed a sheriff's sergeant. The judge wanted them off his property - and summoned law enforcement to help.

A Hillsborough sheriff's deputy issued trespass warnings to Brian Lyle, Jesse Watters and Colin Kelly.

The men face penalties only if they return to the judge's home, said sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway.

But the show's executive producer said Lopez blocked the men's sport utility vehicle, prohibiting them from leaving.

"They would have left without incident if the judge had let them," said David Tabacoff.

Last week, the judge caught heat after Michael Allen Phillips fatally shot Sgt. Ronald Harrison in an unexplained ambush.

Phillips previously had been arrested in February, but got out of jail in June after Lopez set bail in the case at $30,000, allowing him to go free while he awaited trial on that charge and others.

Lopez told a St. Petersburg Times columnist on Tuesday that nothing about Phillips' criminal history, which included mostly misdemeanors but also some prison time, suggested the violence he would commit two months after leaving jail.

He could not be reached for comment later about his run-in with the TV crew.

Tabacoff said Lopez refused to answer questions. The show's piece on the judge's bail decision airs tonight at 8 p.m. and repeats at 11 p.m.

Footage from the uncomfortable driveway meeting is a likely bet. In April, an O'Reilly Factor crew confronted a Denver newspaper's media expert in the parking lot of a Wild Oats market, then broadcast the confrontation in a negative segment about her.

Staff writer Sue Carlton contributed to this report. Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 813 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.

[Last modified August 22, 2007, 00:22:48]