Officer accused of ‘inappropriate’ conduct on Whitney’s corpse

Agence France-Presse

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Lawsuit claims police officer made undue examination following singer's death

SINGER-ACTRESS HOUSTON. Violated in death? 

LOS ANGELES, USA – A policeman lifted a sheet covering the just-dead body of singer Whitney Houston and made “inappropriate” comments including the remark, “Damn, she’s still looking good, huh?” a lawsuit alleges.

Beverly Hills Detective Sergeant Terry Nutall had “no legitimate” justification in the action and remarks, when he arrived at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 11, 2012, after the singer-actress had been found dead in a bath.

A coroner subsequently ruled that the 48-year-old singing legend died of accidental drowning, with cocaine listed as a contributing factor, on the eve of the Grammys show in 2012.

‘Decedent’s body’

In a lawsuit, another policeman, Sergeant Brian Weir, claims he was stripped of various privileges when he raised the alleged misconduct with superiors.

The legal document was published by the Los Angeles Times.

“Nutall, for no legitimate [reason], knelt beside and leaned over the decedent [and] 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,” went the document.

He then “came in close proximity to touching the body .. while making inappropriate comments to the effect .. that the decedent ‘looked attractive for a woman of her age and current state’ and ‘Damn, she’s still looking good, huh?'”

“Nutall .. law, treated the dead body of the decedent in a way that Nutall knew would outrage ordinary family sensibilities,” Weir alleged in his lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles on September 11.

Weir said he responded to the Beverly Hilton Hotel – where Houston was due to attend a traditional pre-Grammys party that Saturday evening – as the senior patrol sergeant on duty at the time.

Afterwards he raised the alleged misconduct with superiors, but claimed the City of Beverly Hills and its Police Department “retaliated” by removing him from duty with SWAT and K-9 units, cutting overtime pay, withdrawing certain privileges, and harassing him.

Weir “has sustained and will continue to sustain economic and non-economic damages. including emotional distress and damage to claimant’s reputation, and other injury, damage, loss, or harm,” said the lawsuit.

The singer of hits such as “I Will Always Love You” sold more than 170 million records during a nearly 3-decade career.

READ: Filipino singers and Whitney Houston: A love affair

But she also fought a long battle against substance abuse.

The 42-page coroner’s report issued in April 2012 said Houston may have overdosed on drugs and alcohol before drowning face down in her bathtub at the famous Beverly Hills hotel.

Various bottles were found in the hotel room – in all some 12 medications prescribed by 5 different doctors, including anxiety treatment Xanax and the potent corticosteroid Prednisone, the report said. – Rappler.com


Whitney Houston’s photo from Shutterstock

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