Cameraman Reaches Deal With Gates Seattle Man Unlawfully Arrested While Covering Wedding Of Microsoft Chairman

A Seattle television cameraman unlawfully arrested while covering the wedding of Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates on Lanai has reached an out-of-court settlement with Gates and Dole Food Co. Inc., which owns the island.

Terms of the monetary settlement for Scott Rensberger of KIRO News were kept confidential, said Mark Davis, Rensberger’s lawyer.

But the agreement included the donation, by Gates’ publicist Karen Frey, of 40 computers worth $67,000 to Lanai High School, Davis said.

It also included letters of apology from Gates and David Murdock, chief executive officer of Dole Food Co., Davis said.

“You know, folks, I just took on two of the most powerful people in the world and I won,” Rensberger, 33, said at a news conference.

Elaborate security precautions were taken for the Jan. 1, 1994, wedding at which Gates married Melinda French at the Manele Bay resorts’ golf course. Security included Dole Food security guards intercepting a number of reporters and photographers on the island.

Rensberger had stopped to videotape security guards putting up a road block at a public beach park near the resort when he was arrested, turned over to county police and taken to the police station, where he was charged with trespass.

Police set his bail at $1,500 on the recommendation of the Dole Food security officers. When Rensberger reached Frey by telephone, “she said she’d drop the charges if I agreed to leave the island immediately,” Rensberger said.

“It was unbelievable. I felt like I was in a Third World country with no rights,” he said.

Maui Circuit Judge Shackley Raffetto ruled earlier that Rensberger should not have been arrested because he was on public property.

Soon after the incident, Hawaii’s attorney general launched an investigation that resulted in a consent decree on public access on Lanai and an apology by Murdock for the manner in which the news media was treated.

The lawsuit was set to go to trial Monday.

In their letters of apology, Gates and Murdock acknowledged that Rensberger’s arrest was improper and that they recognize the importance of a free and open press.

Besides the monetary settlement and donation of the computers, the settlement with Dole Foods includes a $25,000 contribution to Lanaians for Sensible Growth to help start an independent community newsletter or newspaper for the island of 2,500 residents and $25,000 in college scholarships for Lanai High graduates.

Another $10,000 goes to the Roscoe Pound Foundation, which seeks to preserve the civil justice system, Davis said.