No criminal charges will be filed against two Los Angeles police officers who allegedly leaked a photo of pop star Rihanna’s bruised and beaten face, after she was assaulted by singer Chris Brown more than three years ago.
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According to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, an internal report by prosecutors says that after a three-year investigation, they didn’t have enough evidence to show celebrity news website TMZ paid the accused officers for the photo, and that became an obstacle in charging them.
As Reported by the Associated Press:
Officers Blanca Lopez and Rebecca Reyes may still get fired. They are slated to appear before disciplinary panels in August.
Prosecutors allege the photo was leaked after a stack of photographs of Rihanna’s injuries was left lying on a desk at the Wilshire police station and Reyes took a picture of the top photo with her phone.
Prosecutors say Reyes later emailed the image from her LAPD email address to her personal email address.
Reyes and Lopez were roommates at the time, and phone records showed that they made multiple phone calls to Fox Television and TMZ in February.
The photo shocked fans and prompted a national conversation about domestic violence after it spread through the media.
But despite a search of Reyes’ and Lopez’s bank accounts, a money trail was not discovered tying the leak to them, prosecutors said.
In order to prove the officers broke the law, prosecutors reported that they:
“must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Reyes and Lopez disclosed the image of Robyn F. (Rihanna) to TMZ and obtained money in exchange for this disclosure.”
Rihanna’s attorney Donald Etra said Thursday he does not know at this time whether the singer wants to pursue any further legal action:
“Apparently this was an internal decision by the district attorney. A victim’s privacy should be protected.”
Clearly Rihanna’s celebrity worked against her in this matter.
SOURCE: AP
