Friday, June 29, 2012

Rihanna photo: no charges over leak

Rihanna

Two police officers who allegedly leaked a photo of Rihanna after she was assaulted by Chris Brown will not face criminal charges, officials have said.

The 2009 photo, which showed the singer's bruised face, was published on US gossip site TMZ.

However, prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to show TMZ paid the accused officers for the image.

Rihanna's lawyer said he did not know whether the singer intended to pursue any further legal action.

Officers Blanca Lopez and Rebecca Reyes are due to appear before disciplinary panels in August and may lose their jobs.

An internal report, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, showed the LA County District Attorney alleged the image was leaked after a stack of photos of the singer's injuries was left lying on a desk at the Wilshire police station, and Ms Reyes took a picture of one with her phone.

Prosecutors claim she later emailed the image from her work email address to her personal email address.

Phone records also showed Ms Reyes and Ms Lopez - who were roommates at the time - made multiple phone calls to Fox Television and TMZ in February 2009.

But despite a search of the pair's bank accounts, there was no money trail linking the leak to them.

In order to prove the officers broke the law, prosecutors said in the report that they "must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Reyes and Lopez disclosed the image to TMZ and obtained money in exchange for this disclosure".

"As such, although both Reyes and Lopez's actions are suspicious, they are insufficient to support a criminal prosecution," the report stated.

Brown, who was Rihanna's boyfriend at the time, was sentenced to 180 hours community service and five years probation after admitting the attack in February 2009.



Source & Image : BBC

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