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Nikki Catsouras photographs controversy

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Nicole "Nikki" Catsouras (March 4, 1988 - October 31, 2006) was an American woman who died at the age of 18 as a result of a car crash after losing control of her father's Porsche Carrera at high speed and colliding with a toll booth in Orange County, California. An autopsy revealed cocaine had recently ingested by Nicole. The death was notable for a controversy surrounding the leakage of photographs of Catsouras' badly damaged body on to the Internet, which caused her family to take legal action due to distress about the incident.

Legal action

A judge in California ruled that it would be appropriate to move forward with the family's legal case against the California Highway Patrol for leaking the photographs. The family hired ReputationDefender to handle their lawsuit. This led to the California Highway Patrol issuing a formal apology and taking action to prevent similar occurrences in the future, after discovering that departmental policy had been violated by the two officers responsible for the leakage of the photographs. O'Donnell was suspended for 25 days without pay, and Reich quit soon after, "for unrelated reasons," according to his lawyer. As of March 21, 2008, the final ruling in the legal case was issued. Judge Steven L. Perk dismissed the case against the Department of the California Highway Patrol after both Reich and O'Donnell were removed as defendants. Judge Perk ruled that the two were not under any responsibility for protecting the privacy of the Catsouras family, effectively ending the basis for the case. The family's legal team is appealing the ruling.

External links

  1. Obituary. Orange County Register.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference beautiful was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. Cite error: The named reference newsweek was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. "Judge dismisses suit over CHP photo leak". Orange County Register. Retrieved 2008-07-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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