Worker fired for profiting from pix taken with company camera p.35

By: Editorial Staff

A UTILITY WORKER who captured the gripping image of a fireman clutching a child after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City was fired for profiting from pictures he took with his company camera.
Lester LaRue said he was fired from his job as a safety coordinator with the Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. after company officials argued over ownership of the photographs.
"I don't feel like I've been treated very fairly," LaRue, 57, said. "I've been a company man for 32 years. Now, I look over my shoulder and say that was my life. Because it's gone."
Company spokesman Don Sherry said LaRue violated the utility's conflict-of-interest policy by accepting money for the two rolls of film he shot as he and other employees responded to the disaster.
LaRue was one of two amateur photographers who captured the image of firefighter Chris Fields holding one-year-old Baylee Almon. The baby, who had been in the day-care center on the second floor of the federal building, was pronounced dead by emergency medical technicians at the scene.
The photograph taken by bank teller Charles Porter IV was transmitted to newspapers all over the world by the Associated Press. LaRue captured the same image from farther away, and his picture was published on the cover of Newsweek magazine. Neither man has said how much money they made from the pictures.
Sherry said photographing utility workers was part of LaRue's job. The conflict arose, he said, when LaRue "stumbled into history" and photographed scenes that showed the extent of the human tragedy.
"Any compensation ought not to go to him personally but should go to the victims or to a victims' relief fund," Sherry said. "There was no need for him to lose his job over this issue."
LaRue's attorney, Jerry Dunlap II, said 23 of the photographs LaRue took were copyrighted and belonged to him. All depict scenes of the rescue effort and victims of the explosion and do not involve company activities.