Whitney Houston was found dead by her
bodyguard on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hills hotel in February, 2012.
Hours later she was to attend a pre-Grammy bash. She was 48.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment