Nicole "Nikki" Catsouras (born March 4, 1988, died October 31, 2006) was an American young woman who died at the age of 18 as a result of a car crash after losing control of her father's Porsche at a high rate of speed, and colliding with a toll booth in Orange County, California. The death was notable for a controversy surrounding the leakage of photographs of Catsouras' badly dismembered and decapitated body on to the Internet, which caused her family to take legal action due to distress about the incident.
Leakage of photographs to the Internet
Photographs of the scene of Catsouras' bloody death were made by California Highway Patrol officers as part of standard fatal crash procedures. These photos were then forwarded to others within the Department. Two CHP PSDSIs (Public Safety Dispatch Supervisor I), Aaron Reich and Thomas O'Donnell, admitted to sending these photos to their personal e-mail accounts in violation of CHP policy. PSDSI O'Donnell later stated in interviews that he only sent the photos to his own e-mail account for viewing at a later time, while PSDSI Reich stated that he had forwarded the pictures to four other people. Catsouras' parents soon discovered the photographs online which had gained much attention, including in the form of a fake MySpace tribute website which actually contained links to the photographs. This led to the California Highway Patrol issuing a formal apology and took action to prevent a similar occurrence in the future, after discovering that departmental policy had been violated by two California Highway Patrol Dispatcher Supervisors who were being held responsible for the leakage of the photographs. The family's legal team is appealing.[
]
|
