Photographer convicted over topless Diaz snaps

The photographer who took topless photos of a 19-year-old aspiring model named Cameron Diaz, then attempted to sell them back to her after she became a movie star, is facing up to six years in prison.

John Rutter was convicted yesterday in a Los Angeles court of forgery, attempted grand theft and perjury for the €2.9m scheme involving 11-year-old photos. He is due to be sentenced on September 15.

In the meantime, Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor revoked Rutter’s bail and ordered him to jail, ruling the 42-year-old photographer is a flight risk.

“Although I wish that this unfortunate situation hadn’t occurred in the first place, I am very gratified that justice has been served,” Diaz said in a statement. She wasn’t in court to witness the verdict, which jurors reached after about four hours of deliberations.

Rutter testified during his two-week trial that he did indeed give Diaz two days to pay him €2.9m for the photos before he shopped them to prospective buyers for a campaign timed to coincide with the 2003 release of her film Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

But he said he was only offering her first right of refusal, not trying to blackmail her.

Diaz testified that Rutter told her the buyers were “going to use this against you” by portraying her as a “bad angel” in a huge magazine spread and bus and billboard ad campaign. When he wouldn’t identify the purported buyers, she contacted authorities.

Rutter also acknowledged Diaz’s signature appeared to be forged on a model release form he showed the actress, but he insisted he wasn’t the one who committed the forgery.

Jurors left the courtroom without comment, and Rutter also had no comment. His lawyer, Mark Werksman, said the photographer was devastated.

“This is about the blackest day in John Rutter’s life,” said Werksman, who accused Diaz of using her fame and fortune to destroy his client.

“This was an epic battle between a rich and famous celebrity and a hardworking photographer,” Werksman said. ”She brought powerful, enormous interests to bear against him.”

The judge ordered lawyers to discuss making restitution, but Werksman said his client is in no position to pay.

“It’s laughable to expect John Rutter to pay Cameron Diaz,” he said. “I can only shudder to think what kind of bills she will present.”

Diaz was a 19-year-old aspiring model when the pictures were taken in 1992. She posed in leather boots and fishnet stockings in a warehouse. At one point she held a chain attached to a male model’s neck.

She wore a top and black vest in some of the photos, which were published in European magazines at the time. The topless photos have never been published, and a judge has prohibited Rutter from releasing either them or a video of the shoot.

Diaz, whose screen credits include Shrek and There’s Something About Mary, testified that she wasn’t ashamed of the shots and had offered at one point to go into partnership with Rutter in releasing some images. She said he turned her down.

Rutter’s theft conviction was for the alleged blackmail scheme, the forgery conviction was for the fake Diaz signature and the perjury conviction was for declaring in a separate civil case that the signature was authentic.