LANCASTER – A California Highway Patrol dispatcher, speaking publicly for the first time about a high-profile lawsuit blaming him for photos of a dead teen proliferating on the Internet, said he feels sorry for her family but that he did nothing wrong.
“Why am I here?” Thomas O’Donnell said in a quiet voice as he sat in his attorney’s office. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
The lawsuit accuses O’Donnell, 38, and another CHP dispatcher of illegally transmitting to the public gory images of car-crash victim Nicole “Nikki” Catsouras – turning her into an online sensation and further traumatizing her grieving Ladera Ranch family.
Nikki took her father’s Porsche without his permission on Oct. 31, 2006, and slammed it into a toll plaza in Lake Forest. Just weeks after her death, pictures of her corpse began appearing on Web sites – many of which specialize in morbid curiosities.
Her parents sued the CHP after the agency took responsibility for the leaked images, which are supposed to be used only for investigative purposes.
ABC’s “20/20” aired a segment on the crash and its aftermath, focusing on anonymous Internet users who taunted the Catsouras family with photos of all of Nikki’s face and most of her head missing.
O’Donnell is an 18-year CHP veteran and dispatch supervisor in Irvine.
As he defended his actions during a one-hour interview this week, Nikki’s parents, for the first time, detailed their daughter’s mental and physical state in the hours leading up to the crash – criticizing defense attorneys for making an issue of an illegal drug found in her system.
Both sides are girding for a key court hearing next month in a case that has magnified the dark side of the Internet while raising questions about an individual’s right to privacy following a very public death.
ADMITTED BREACH
O’Donnell, a 15-year CHP service pin attached to his necktie and a U.S. flag pin affixed to his blazer, said he never transmitted the e-mailed images to anyone outside the agency.
Letting his attorney, R. Rex Parris, do most of the talking, O’Donnell said he feels bad about how pictures of the 18-year-old graduate of Tesoro High School have been misused.
“There isn’t anyone alive who wouldn’t rewrite this story where Nikki Catsouras ends up unhurt,” said Parris, a civil justice attorney in Lancaster.
O’Donnell admitted to violating CHP policy by sending the images to his private e-mail account to view on his unsecured home computer – but said he did so for work purposes. He said he was too busy to look at the images at work.
Dispatchers and other CHP officials routinely review and reproduce grisly images of car crashes for training purposes and to educate the public about the dangers of driving recklessly or while under the influence.
The Catsouras family is seeking at least $20 million in damages from the CHP, O’Donnell and another dispatcher, Aaron Reich, claiming violation of privacy, negligence and infliction of emotional distress.
On Feb. 8, a judge in Santa Ana is set to decide whether the lawsuit has enough merit to go forward or if O’Donnell and Reich should be removed as defendants – essentially killing the case, not counting appeals.
In court papers and in an interview, Parris argued that the lawsuit is misguided. He said O’Donnell was within his right to look at the pictures at home, and even if he did post the pictures online – which he did not, both men said – the images are appropriate for public consumption.
“Why shouldn’t these photos be in every school?” Parris asked.
The real culprits, Parris said, are the “anonymous cyberbullies” who transmitted the images worldwide, often with mocking comments about Nikki and her family. Parris said more responsibility should be placed on Nikki and her parents – not O’Donnell or the CHP.
Cocaine metabolites were found in Nikki’s system, according to a coroner’s report.
The Orange County coroner could not determine if the manner of death was an accident or suicide, ruling it “undetermined.”
While expressing sadness for the Catsouras family, Parris said Nikki’s condition in the hours leading up to her death should be a factor in determining the merits of the lawsuit.
“How is that responsible behavior?” Parris said.
Nikki’s parents, Christos and Lesli Catsouras, say their daughter’s admitted use of an illegal drug is irrelevant to the lawsuit.
TESTED POSITIVE
Both of Nikki’s parents called 911 after she bolted from home on the afternoon of Oct. 31, 2006. Lesli Catsouras saw her leave and then called her husband at work.
Recordings of 911 calls capture the anguish of Nikki’s parents – who both told dispatchers she had been drinking.
At one point during his call, Christos Catsouras sees two CHP cruisers speed down Antonio Parkway. The sirens can be heard in the background.
He asks the dispatcher if an accident has been reported in the area. The dispatcher says yes – on the 241 toll road, at Alton Parkway.
By that point – about 1:45 p.m. on a dry, cool day – Nikki was dead.
Traveling at speeds exceeding 100 mph in a car her parents say she never had driven before, the 2001 Porsche Carrera zoomed northbound on the 241 before striking a 2006 Honda Civic. The Honda spun out, coming to rest in the dirt center divider.
The lone person in the Honda was transferred to a hospital with minor injuries. He has sued the Catsouras family for damages. That case is pending.
The Porsche Nikki was driving crossed all northbound lanes and then the center divider. It hit a dip, causing it to go airborne. The black convertible then crossed all southbound lanes of traffic and came to rest upside down against the toll plaza.
In an interview this week, Lesli Catsouras said Nikki had not been drinking but had used cocaine the night before the crash – only the second time she had tried the drug, her mother said.
“The bottom line is, teenagers sometimes do stupid things,” Lesli Catsouras said.
Two months before Nikki died, she was hospitalized for three days after trying cocaine supplied by a schoolmate, Lesli Catsouras said. Nikki had an inoperable brain tumor – first detected when she was 8 – that caused her to have a severe psychotic reaction to the drug.
Nikki took the Porsche because her parents were going to admit her to a hospital again after she tested positive for cocaine the night before she died, Lesli Catsouras said. Her parents had taken away the keys to her car, but she found the keys to the Porsche dangling in the house.
“Nikki was a good child – not some out-of-control party girl, which a lot of people on the Internet have painted her as,” Lesli Catsouras said. “They didn’t know my daughter. Her family, friends and those who love her know the truth.”
RESPONSIBILITY
Attorneys for Aaron Reich, the second CHP dispatcher named in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment. Reich sent the photos to at least four people outside the agency, CHP officials have told attorneys for the Catsouras family.
In court papers, Reich’s attorney, Jon R. Schlueter, said his client violated no law and that he was within his free-speech rights in distributing the photos.
“Under California law, publication of pictures of a dead person violates no privacy rights of the dead person’s relatives,” Schlueter said in court papers.
Reich no longer works for the CHP. His departure was long planned and has nothing to do with the lawsuit, his attorneys have said.
The CHP potentially can be held liable if Orange County Superior Court Judge Steven L. Perk rules that the lawsuit against O’Donnell and Reich has enough merit to move forward.
“The CHP conducted a thorough internal investigation and has taken disciplinary and corrective action in this case,” the agency said in a statement. “This was a tragic accident and a difficult, unfortunate situation.
“The CHP sent condolences to the family through their attorney, but due to pending litigation we cannot comment any further.”
O’Donnell said he feels the agency where he has worked for 18 years – and one where his father spent his career – abandoned him in the wake of the lawsuit. The CHP declined to pay for an attorney to represent him or Reich, he said.
O’Donnell said his supervisor recommended that he receive a written reprimand for emailing photos of Nikki’s corpse to his home computer.
Instead, another CHP superior suspended him for 25 days without pay, according to O’Donnell and Parris. He took the penalty in the form of reduced pay while continuing to work.
“Tommy is sitting here looking at a quarter of a million dollars in legal fees, and for what?” Parris said.
“At some point, you have to ask yourself what the motivations of (the Catsouras family) is. I’m convinced this is a way for Nikki’s parents to get their 15 minutes of fame and (try) to get rich.”
Lesli Catsouras recoils at the suggestion they sued the CHP for money. She said she and her husband have spent hundreds of thousand of dollars on attorney fees and on hiring Reputation Defender, a company that specializes in trying to get offensive material removed from Web sites.
“This is a horrible situation that has become a nightmare,” she said.
Catsouras family attorney Keith Bremer, of Bremer Whyte Brown &O’Meara in Newport Beach, said he is confident about the case.
“The facts will come out in court,” Bremer said. “What I’m uncomfortable about is (defense attorneys) disparaging my client.
“The conduct of my client before the crash, whether she was a Girl Scout or a dope dealer, is irrelevant,” Bremer said. “The fact that they brought this up shows a total lack of understanding and compassion.”
O’Donnell said as a dispatcher, he has spent his career trying to help people and never would willfully cause pain to the family of an accident victim.
“I don’t want them to suffer,” he said of the Catsouras family.
Contact the writer: 949-454-7356 or ghardesty@ocregister.com
