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.
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