Attorneys started picking a jury Monday to hear Beachcomber Publisher Jay Beeler’s Long Beach Superior Court trial, the Press-Telegram’s Wendy Thomas Russell writes this morning.

Beeler is accused of two misdemeanor offenses–obstructing a police officer and disobeying the order of a police officer–during last year’s tragic fire at the Galaxy Towers condo complex, 2999 E. Ocean Blvd. He was arrested March 28, 2007, Thomas Russell reports, after refusing to leave a cordoned-off area near the fire.

The fire resulted in the death of 18th-floor resident John Carlyle Crews, 60; his unit was fully engulfed in flames and Crews fell to his death.

Beeler’s case is interesting, for it shows how dramatically the relationship between police and firefighters has changed from the days of, say, the murder of Elizabeth Short, the so-called Black Dahlia–when police and reporters were much closer.

Los Angeles newspapers helped drive that 1947 case with their relentless coverage; they heard confessions, got mysterious packages in the mail–and ultimately … it was never solved.

Which is one reason why modern police and firefighters try to distance reporters–and publishers–from crime, accident and fire scenes: so we don’t screw things up for them. (And yes, I’m well aware there are also safety reasons involved.)

But that doesn’t necessarily make the way they do it right.

I’m not taking a side in Beeler’s case, but I’ve cooled my heels at many a command post–blocks from whatever action was happening–and I have to say: if you’re trying to do your job, this sort of stuff can happen.

Our job pits us against police and fire officials, in effect–because they certainly will have details of an incident which they want to keep private; and areas they’d like to keep us out of, for whatever reasons.

Their business is putting out fires and solving crimes–not talking to reporters–and we are continually reminded of that fact. Our job is writing stories about incidents they’re involved in–and often, finding out information they don’t want us to have.

This makes for some fun times.

I’ve had fire officials interview me, to find out what neighbors of a burning apartment knew about a fire. Why? Because I got to the fire before they did–and they were playing catch-up.

I’ve also been told by police to get the hell out of the cordoned-off area–as Beeler was–many years ago, when I was still a journalism student and was trying to get some photos of the vacant Mike Salta Pontiac dealership on fire.

And once, when Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested a suspected cop killer in Compton, I floored it down Compton Boulevard, following a blacked-out Chevy Suburban with suspiciously blinking taillights to the crime scene.

It was a police truck, of course, and I got to the scene before they even set up a perimeter–which is what they always do, to keep us back. This meant I had to find a Sheriff’s sergeant to lift the crime scene tape and let me get my car out when I left, and what did he do? He bawled me out for parking behind the then-invisible line. Nice guy.

It’s a risky business.

Tags: Beachcomber, black dahlia, California, Compton, Elizabeth Short, Galaxy Towers, Jay Beeler, John Carlyle Crews, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies, Mike Salta Pontiac, press telegram, Southern California, Wendy Thomas Russell