out of morbid curiosity, i found all of the pictures on the internet. it was absolutely the goriest, saddest thing i have ever seen in my life. poor girl. there have been some vile comments made about her, and it is just sad that people don't have the decency to leave her parents alone.

What a crock of s**t. Again, parents see a way to Profit off their child's death. f**king disgusting. Well, I guess the few odd millions of dollars will let them live a life of luxury safe from their guilt.

Photos were released or an employee made copies. This s**t happens. There is a few billion pictures like this all over the net. There are many sites which specialize in showing these type of images.

It is crazy to say that the the employer had any control over the release or could have even prevented it. They won't sue the person who released the images because that might possibly be about justice, but it wouldn't buy them a new house in malibu.

Anyhow the images are released and are one of a few billion anonymous pictures. Now that they are suing it is news and the images will be seen by many many more people and the anonymity is gone.

I know many of you don't agree, many of you thing it is perfectly fine for the family to look at this a freaking lottery win. Fine, you're entitled to your opinion. I still adamantly feel that to sue the highway patrol is far far far worse of a crime against their daughter than the release of the images themselves.

Yes it is painful to have them e-mailed to them, but that probably happens with every gruesome image out there. Suing won't change anything. There will still be such images released because people have a morbid desire to look at them.

Heck if the accident happened on a public road and was worked by public employees a case could be made that the images should be public information anyhow, that they are news. I am not saying that should be the case, just that it could be argued that way. No, I am merely stating that suing for mega bucks is incredibly Evil.

Jesus christ, disagree with it all you want, but could you show even a tiny bit of respect for what that family is going through?

I am not discussing the fact that they lost their daughter to a car accident, that is tragic. That is the true nightmare. That is something no one should have to go through. That is something I can show respect for.

But for them to see a way to enrich themselves off of it is wrong. For them to make someone not even remotely responsible for it is wrong.

They are the ones not showing respect to their daughter. They are the ones who are taking personal advantage of the situation.

As I said the lawsuit will not change human behavior. These images and many more will continue to be of interest to some people. Sites such as ogrish.com and the like will continue to flourish. The lawsuit will not prevent this from happening again. There is little that could possibly be done to ensure that such images do not get released

They may have been justified in seeking the firing of the individual who released the images. They may have had some justification in suing that person. As I said they won't do that because this isn't about justice, or respect, or even revenge. No, it is 100% about that deluxe apartment in the sky.

If they didn't try to cash in, the whole thing would have faded away. Their attempt to be able to buy a yacht has ensured that instead of a relatively handful of people seeing the images and a far fewer number knowing who she was will not be millions of people seeing the images and all knowing who she was and the story behind it.

What they were going through would have died off, the people e-mailing the images would have stopped. They have made sure that it will continue and will be done so by far far far far more people. Of course if their lawsuit is successful they will have people who will check their e-mail for them before bringing out the mirmosa while they are lounging around the pool.

If the images being released is the problem, they have increased the pain caused by it by several orders of magnatude.

Moral of the story: Do not steal your parents' car, especially if it is a Porsche.

a good example is the Goldman family who sued OJ for killing, I'm sorry "allegedly" killing their son.

They sued the person who actually killed their son. They didn't sue the police for failing to stop it, they didn't sue the maker of the knife, they didn't sue NFL, they didn't sue anyone no matter how remotely connected. Of course they did this because they knew OJ had lots of cash.

Suing the person responsible was the only way they had to actually hurt that person is some way. They did this because they felt that they were not given justice by the judicial system.

That is understandable to some degree.

However when they decided to publish the infamous book themselves, it was no longer a case of trying to seek justice or even revenge. Either emotion is understandable.

No publishing the book will not hurt OJ in the least, hell he wanted to publish it himself. Publishing the book could even help OJ.

Publishing the book and gaining the proceeds is nothing but a way to cash in on their sons death. It isn't about justice, revenge, or showing respect it is a 100% lottery win.

Same thing here, suing the highway patrol is only about money.

Even the headline is false and misleading.

The images were not "released" they were stolen by an employee. "Released" implies that they were deliberately given out by the police, that is not the case.

I couldn't disagree with you more.

Pictures taken by the CHP should be every bit as private as hospital records.
A lawsuit may actually help button up the leaks. I can almost guarantee that being hit with a large lawsuit will trickle down to the source and jobs will be lost as a result and as they should be...f*****g a*****es releasing such disturbing and personal photos without family permission should also go to jail as far as I'm concerned.

Most of the time I will agree with your frivolous lawsuit rants 2many...but when it comes to parents that tragically loose a child...well, I have known parents that have lost a child and they are never the same people as they once were, and I know that they would give any amount, hell, all of their money, and even their own lives if they could have them back.

Let's, for a second look at possible recourse's for such a family
can they kill those responsible? ...well no.
can they beat them up? ...well no.
can they put them in jail? ...well no
can they ignore everything? ...well not really, I mean their daughter did die...pretty hard to ignore, and no, it ain't gonna go away! Especially when e-mails of their dead daughter keep popping up.
can they sue, causing discomfort to those responsible, causing investigations that wouldn't normally go forward, causing people responsible to pay with either discipline, permanent record black marks, termination, or maybe all of the above...Hell Yes!

hmm I saw these a while ago. They were anonymous and did not have a name attached to it... now thanks to this lawsuit (which I kind of agree with 2many) there's a name and a picture of the girl attached to it.

Hoosker said it much better than I did.

How will the family cashing in stop individuals from stealing the images?

Answer that one. If such a lawsuit were to magically stop all releases of private info, than fine sue away, although it would still be Evil to Profit. In any case it certainly will not stop any further releases, it will not stop leaks.

Such images have been released always and will continue to be released

Yes, the individual will get fired, but that is all. As long as images are made they will get out sometimes. This is inevitable.

This isn't a lawsuit to fire the person responsible, to give them black marks,etc. No, this is only about making cold hard cash at cost of their daugher's dignity.

They aren't suing the person who did the deed (yes it should be a crime), they aren't suing the police to fire or discipline. They are even suing to force changes in security systems. No they are asking for Money. They are doing this because they know there are no magical procedures that would guarantee all images are prevented from making it to the net.

heck they aren't even seeking damages from the ones harrassing them by e-mailing them, after all their is no profit in that.

There will not be one less image that makes it to the net because of this. We all know the net is filled with these type of images. They will continue to be so.

Yes, the images should be private.

Nothing the police could have done would have prevented it, they did not "release" the images despite the headline/article.

Suing will have no effect other than making them more money. Well unless someone sues them for damages caused by the girl.

How is it possibly justified for them to further enrich themselves at the expense of parties not even remotely responsible?

Sharing photographs of accident scenes are a part of the job for highway patrol workers and dispatchers, and always have been, he said. He claimed that as long as taking accident scene pictures remains part of CHP policy, incidents such as this one will continue to come up.

I have to agree with 2many, as harsh as it may seem. And I have children that I would not want to remember the way that these people are remembering their daughter. But frivolous lawsuits are a pet peeve of mine.

I think it is a fireable offense and it was heartless to leak those.

For me? I wouldn't want the money. Every dollar I spent would feel dirty to me.

Fire them, send them to sensitivity training, give them community service or make them spend time with people who have lost a child in such a way. (In this job, we get immune to the tragedy in others lives....if we sat and thought about every body and life wasted it would eat us up alive...I still have calls that affect me sometimes)

A million dollars is not going to replace my child or have anyone forget what they saw when they saw the pictures.

A million dollars will never EVER prevent a picture from leaking out again.


Furthermore, those pictures are learning tools for Public safety as well. Yes, we learn from those pictures and it can help someone else.

Every year I go to Metrolife flights inservices. Metro Life Flight .

They are free. Pictures of accidents, injuries and death, people at the worst or last moments of their lives are projected in the auditorium, discussed and learned from.

I would hate to see lawsuits like this springing up and the ability to not learn from something prior possibly save someone else.


I wonder if they were upset with local news for showing the crash or the newspaper for reporting it?

2Many, You are very logical, but, respectfully, I think you're missing a few points.

I work for the Texas Government. If the State gets sued, the person that caused the problem gets fired. Not only that, but being rehired anywhere OR collecting unemployment from the state becomes difficult as well.

Additionally, my job is VERY difficult and there is a ton of "Chain of custody" paperwork that I have to jump through to get chemicals I experiment with. If anything ever disappears, it is easy to figure out who dropped the ball.
The same will be done with photos.

I agree with people not profiting from tragedy, which seems to be your motivation. But unless the penalty is costly, the machinery of government doesn't move.

I'm not saying she deserved what came to her in anyway, but it was a bit of a stupid move to pull 100mph on some highway in a stolen vehicle.

Here are those pics of Nikki Catsouras

In the same vein, look at the honda that she hit.

Whoever was in that vehicle should sue her family for the cost of the medical bills that they probably had, you know, as long as we are suing people who only have indirect responsibility.

The report says that she "clipped" the honda, but it looks like she f*****g NAILED it.

gotta go w/ 2many

Here's the thing about the internet...It makes a lot of really nasty things way, way too easy.

This type of thing is one example. The horrible comments and judgement cast against those who commit crimes or just make a mistake that results in a death is another.

Money won't make it go away, money won't stop it. Suing brings it into the public light even more, which I would think would make it a hard decision to make.

Has anyone here been involved in something like this? Some little thing that 10 years ago might have made it to the local news, but certainly NOT the national news, but now gets splashed all over the newsboards and the national news? I have. Not something I did, something a family member did. I was absolutely appalled at the amount of nastiness unleashed, at the terrible things that people wrote, at how quickly it became 'news' all across the nation.

yeah it sux for the parents that their stupida$$ kid did what a stupida$$ kid might do if their not taught respect and consequence.


when I first seen this story on one of the carclub forums. I immediately pulled up the googlearth to check out the highway.

Breeders, Please punish your children before they inspire a stranger to do it for you.

I will not search for the horrid pictures, but I think they are distinguished from those used in educational settings by their focus on sensationalism vs. educational value. More blood and twisted bodies = sensationalism. Photos showing mechanism of injury = education.

I agree, in the UK, as far as the data protection act is concerned, this would be totally unacceptable and there would be a likely prosecution if those photographs were released without the relevant permissions.