Brian Weir, a Beverly Hills police officer, has filed a lawsuit against the city for the way he was treated after reporting misconduct by a fellow officer during the investigation on the death of singer Whitney Houston.
In 2012, Weir was one of the responders at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where Houston was found dead in her suite’s bathtub. Weir, then assigned as a SWAT team sergeant, attempted to secure the scene and covered Houston’s body with a sheet to prevent contamination.
Weir claims that as he was working, Detective Sergeant Terry Nutall of the department’s fraud and forgery unit arrived. Nutall pulled the sheet down to the Houston’s pubic region, coming in close proximity to touching the body and possibly contaminating the scene. Weir also heard Nutall make inappropriate comments such as that the singer “looked attractive for a woman of her age and current state.”
According to Weir’s lawsuit, he believes that Nutall, who’s now a lieutenant, treated the singer’s body in a way that his fellow officer knew is in violation of the Model Penal Code as well as the department’s own manual. What Nutall did had no legal purpose, and was not done for any legitimate law enforcement or investigative inquiry.
Weir said in his lawsuit that after he reported the incident, Nutall and his superiors took reprisal action against him. He was removed from the SWAT team, denied promotion to other positions, denied special and overtime pay, and was stripped of supervisory duties. In sum, he was ostracized and harassed by the other officers in the department, including Captain Tony Lee, Lieutenant Lincoln Hoshino, and the Chief of Police David Snowden.
The situation caused Weir to lose income and make him upset, aggravated, and distressed. As such, he is seeking damages for consequential, incidental, and actual losses. He also wants his position in the SWAT team back, and is also seeking damages for emotional distress, and legal costs and attorney fees.
Whitney Houston’s Autopsy
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