California Family Fights For Privacy, Relief From Cyber-Harassment

[rossshow]

California Family Fights For Privacy, Relief From Cyber-Harassment (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/26/1323204)

"Just days after his daughter Nikki's death in a devastating car crash, real-estate agent Christos Catsouras clicked open an e-mail that appeared to be a property listing. Onto his screen popped his daughter's bloodied face, captioned with the words 'Woohoo Daddy! Hey daddy, I'm still alive.' Now he and his wife are attempting to stop strangers from displaying the grisly images of their daughter (http://www.newsweek.com/id/195073/page/1) — an effort that has transformed Nikki's death into a case about privacy, cyber-harassment and image control. The images of Nikki, including one of her nearly-decapitated head drooping out the shattered car window, were taken as a routine part of a fatal accident response and went viral after being leaked by two CHP dispatchers. 'Putting these photos on the Internet,' says the family's attorney, 'was akin to placing them in every mailbox in the world.'"

[Tess]

JHC. :(

[Maison Rustique]

This is quite close to where I live. I had no idea that this was still happening. I thought it had been resolved somehow as there's been nothing recent about it in the news. It's just absolutely sick. The person/people behind this obviously have mental problems. I hope they can put an end to this soon. :(

Those cops should be locked up, too.

[tekobari]

I don't even have the words to describe this. Disgusting, evil, and so forth, aren't strong enough.

[rossshow]

I guess this is ongoing, from 2006. The family tried to sue the CHP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Catsouras

A judge in California (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Catsouras#cite_note-beautiful-2) The family hired ReputationDefender (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Catsouras#cite_note-beautiful-2)

O'Donnell was suspended for 25 days without pay, and Reich quit soon after, "for unrelated reasons," according to his lawyer.[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Catsouras#cite_note-newsweek-1) 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.[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Catsouras#cite_note-postponed-3)

[rossshow]

The recent newsweek article discusses it further:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/195073/page/1

[rossshow]

From the Newsweek article


Lesli and Christos forbid their daughters from using social-networking sites like MySpace, and have enabled computer settings that prevent photos from popping up on their screen. But Nikki's story is pervasive: Google delivers 246,000 results for "Catsouras." Recently, Christiana needed the address to a local hair salon called "Legends." She typed "Legends Ladera Ranch," the name of their town, into Google, and Nikki's name, as the "legend" of "Ladera Ranch," popped up. "It's the simple things you never expect," says Christos. "We live in fear of the pictures. And our kids will never Google their name without the risk of seeing them."

Today the entire family is in therapy, and they've taken out a second mortgage to cover the costs of their legal battle. They still eat dinner as a family each night, but Nikki's seat sits empty. At times, they wish they could put it all behind them. But for the moment, they're focused on the June 1 deadline for a California appeals court to rule on their case. "In a perfect world, I would push a button and delete every one of the images," says Lesli. In the real world, she finds some comfort in working to change the laws, so that photos of some future family's dead child might stay locked away, leaving only smiling, lively images to remember.

[krisinluck]

God, that's unspeakable.

WTF is wrong with people?????