Photographer refutes Madonna publicist's stalking claims

By April MacIntyre Apr 20, 2009, 14:16 GMT

Madonna. CNN reports this morning that the man who snapped photos of Madonna after her horseback riding accident in Bridgehampton is going on record that the star\'s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, released an erroneous statement. Daniel Locke / PR Photos

The photographer accused of lurking in bushes to startle Madonna's horse while she rode claims the star's publicist is incorrect in her assessment of the event.

CNN reports this morning that the man who snapped photos of Madonna after her horseback riding accident in Bridgehampton is going on record that the star's publicist, Liz Rosenberg, released an erroneous statement.

Thomas Hinton, a paparazzo who covers the Hamptons, said he took photos from a public road, before and after the accident  but wasn't there when she had her fall.

The accident happened Saturday afternoon, as Madonna was riding on Klein's horse farm during a weekend visit in the Hamptons. Madonna was taken to Southampton Hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries and bruises and released, her publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said in a statement.

Rosenberg's statement also said that Madonna's horse "was startled by paparazzi who jumped out of the bushes to photograph the singer."

Newsday reporter Jennifer Maloney reported that Hinton claimed that Madonna "was arriving in the Hamptons by helicopter, and tracked her down at Klein's farm, where Hinton parked his car on Scuttle Hole Road and aimed his camera through a line of trees."

"It was so obstructed by bushes that I left," he said to Newsday.

Hinton said he returned, and took photos, again from the road, of Madonna being carried on a backboard into a Bridgehampton Fire Department ambulance.

"If a photographer startled a horse, I'm thinking we would have seen the pictures by now," he told Newsday. "That would be such an egregious thing to do, to trespass and startle a horse. The police would have been looking for a photographer."