Los Angeles, U.S.
-- A police officer removed a sheet covering Whitney Houston's naked corpse and
remarked, "Damn, she's still looking good, huh?" according to another
officer at the scene.
The accusation against the
Beverly Hills Police detective was revealed in a labor dispute filing made last
week by Brian Weir, who was the senior patrol sergeant called to Houston's
hotel room after she was found dead in a bathtub on February 11, 2012.
Weir claims the Beverly Hills
police chief and others retaliated against him when he complained about the
alleged actions of Det. Sgt. Terry Nutall at the death scene on the fourth
floor of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
"We will be looking into
the allegations made in this claim, but we were not aware of any inappropriate
behavior or comments made by any officer at the scene," Beverly Hills
Police spokesman Lt. Lincoln Hoshino told CNN Wednesday.
No formal complaint was ever
filed with the police department by Weir or anyone else, Hoshina said.
"How can we retaliate against him for reporting misconduct if we weren't
aware of any misconduct?" he said.
Houston drowned face down in a
hotel tub of "extremely hot water" about 12 inches deep, the final
autopsy report on the singer's death said. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled
that Houston's death on the eve of the 2012 Grammy Awards was an accidental
drowning with the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use"
as contributing factors.
Weir's complaint, filed on
September 11 with California's labor department, said he covered Houston's body
with a sheet "to prevent contamination or potential DNA and other
potential evidence on the body" and to "preserve the dignity of the
remains."
It said that Nutall -- who was
assigned to investigate fraud, forgery and auto burglaries -- "knelt
beside and leaned over the decedent, removed the sheet and/or other covering
from the body of the decedent to an area below the pubic region of the
decedent's body and came in close proximity to touching the body of the
decedent while making inappropriate comments to the effect and substancethat
the decedent 'looked attractive for a woman of her age and current state' and
'Damn, she's still looking good, huh?'"
Nutall "did properly
respond to the scene," the police spokesman said. "It is appropriate
for a responding detective sergeant to briefly examine the body upon arriving
to a scene like that."
Weir, who had been in the
"coveted positions" of sergeant with the SWAT and K-9 units, claims
he told Beverly Hills officials about the incident, which he said he believed
violated state and federal laws.
After complaining to his
superiors and others in the Beverly Hills government, Weir was removed from his
"coveted positions" of sergeant with the SWAT and K-9 units, denied
promotion to other positions, removed from supervisory duties, denied special
pay, denied training, harassed and ostracized, given inappropriate and
harassing comments an/or documents, and subjected to conduct undermining his
authority as a superior, the filing said. He also lost overtime pay, the filing
alleged.
The complaint accuses Police
Chief David Snowden, Capt. Tony Lee and Nutall -- who has since been promoted
to lieutenant -- of taking "reprisal actions, including acts of
intimidation, restraint, coercion, discrimination, punitive, and/or
disciplinary actions" against Weir.
Weir's lawyer Christopher
Brizzolara is demanding economic and non-economic damages for his client, who
has suffered damage to his law enforcement career and emotional stress.
Houston was last seen alive by
her personal assistant in her Beverly Hilton room at about 3 p.m. that
Saturday, the autopsy report said. The assistant left to run errands after
telling Houston to take a bath in preparation for a pre-Grammy Awards party at
the hotel that night, it said.
When the assistant returned to
the locked room at 3:35 p.m., she found Houston "lying face down in the
bathtub filled with water, unresponsive."
"The assistant called for
her bodyguard, and together they pulled the decedent out of the bathtub,"
the report said.
When paramedics arrived about
10 minutes later, they moved Houston to the living room floor. At 3:55 p.m., 20
minutes after she was found by the assistant, paramedics concluded she was
dead, the report said.
Houston won six Grammys and
sold 170 million albums, singles and videos over her career.
In recent years, the singer's
accomplishments were overtaken by her struggles with drug addiction.
Source: CNN
CNNSs
Source: CNN
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