Family Can Sue CHP Over Death Photos

In what is probably still the most Google searched story I've ever done, the family of a local girl killed in a high speed crash on Halloween Day of 2006 has won the right to sue the CHP officials who released gory photos of the crash:

In a groundbreaking ruling in a case involving ghoulish death images, an appellate court has reversed a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol and two of its employees for leaking photos of a decapitated teenager onto the Internet.

The opinion, by the 4th District Court of Appeal (Division 3) in Santa Ana, is certified for publication, meaning it stands to rewrite state law concerning the privacy rights of surviving family member when it comes to death images of a decedent.

The ruling, made public today, also means that the family of Nicole "Nikki" Catsouras can proceed with their civil action against the CHP, which admitted to improperly disseminating pictures of the 18-year-old's remains following a high-speed crash on a toll road in Lake Forest on Oct. 31, 2006.

"The entire Catsouras family is ecstatic with the court's findings," said family attorney Keith G. Bremer of Bremer, Whyte, Brown & O'Meara in Newport Beach. "The family is pleased that it will now be afforded the opportunity to confront the CHP and the officers with their actions and request that each be held responsible."

In sometimes stinging language, the panel of three justices, in their 64-page ruling, said the Catsouras family, of Ladera Ranch, is on solid legal ground in pursuing damages for negligence, invasion of privacy, and infliction of emotional distress – causes of action that Orange County Superior Court Judge Steven L. Perk tossed out in March 2008.

The appellate court did, however, back Perk in dismissing legal arguments that the family's civil rights were violated.

I certainly have to side with the family on this one. The photos never should have gotten out. I did see them and they were gruesome beyond belief. No parent should have to remember their child that way, regardless of the circumstances that led to the accident.