NYC Family Sues Facebook Over Image Of Daughter’s Corpse

Parents Of Caroline Wimmer Disgusted By Social Site's Immunity

March 28, 2011 11:00 PM

Mark Musarella, Caroline Wimmer/SIlive.com

Reporting John Slattery

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The outraged family of a local murder victim is taking on Facebook.

It was a paramedic who took the crime scene photos, and posted them on the site, but is Facebook, itself, to blame?

It’s a case of what the family is calling “disrespecting the dead,” reports CBS 2’s John Slattery.

Martha and Ronald Wimmer think that the photographing and posting of their daughter’s brutalized body is just more than they can stand.

“This is on the second anniversary of our daughter’s death. I just want to get by, day by day,” Martha Wimmer said.

Her daughter, 26-year-old Caroline Wimmer, was strangled with an electric cord. The convicted killer, Calvin Lawson, got 25 to life. One of the first on the scene, former emergency medical technician Mark Musarella, used his cell phone camera to snap a grisly photo of the corpse, which he then uploaded to Facebook. He pleaded guilty to official misconduct and lost his job.

A civil suit now names Musarella and Facebook.

“I found my daughter. I seen what she looked like. She was horrible. And I know that people at night are looking at it,” Ronald Wimmer said.

Because Facebook is a not-for-profit community bulletin board, it’s protected by a 1996 law, The Communications Decency Act, that gives the social networking giant immunity. The Wimmers’ attorney said what Facebook did was wrong.

“Just like a jewelry store cannot resell stolen property, neither can Facebook,” attorney Ravi Batra said.

The victim’s older sister was equally upset.

“Of the pictures on Facebook … for anyone to see, it kills me,” Christina Criscitiello said.

Later this week a bill is expected to be introduced in Albany that will attempt to reign in the broad immunity Facebook currently enjoys.

A spokesperson from Facebook said, “We haven’t been served or seen the complaint so we have no comment at this time.”

Do you think Facebook should be held liable? Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below.

NYC Family Sues Facebook Over Image Of Daughters Corpse

joebob

yes, and they can post child pornography, gay sex, anything else, so why not Dead bodies.

Well done there Zuckerberg.

IDIOTS Facebook Does provide a venue,and thus is…. liable.

Eric

Read the Communications Decency Act… you are wrong. Facebook is not responsible for what others publish on their website.

“no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1)

Bloomyz&ass

WHy is the cop’s photo posted, I thought that I read that it was an EMS worker that posted the photos.

Jeff Rosen

I was wondering about that also. If he was convicted of official misconduct there is no way he could have been hired by the NYPD.

Donna

He’s retired NYPD–old photo.

Daniel A Hunt

That is a paramedic. DUH

Jeff Rosen

Just to add to my below post (as I clicked submit too fast) I’ve seen pictures of corpses just as bad published in the press. If the EMT was arrested how about newspaper photographers and editors??

Gremlin5

“I’ve seen pictures of corpses just as bad published in the press”

Just today in the murder victims bodies in the Afghanistan civilian slaughter for example

But Rolling Stone is an activist magazine that has a clear cut mission path… to make our troops look terrible so it is to be expected

Facebook is a social outlet that is free to use.

This guy is obviously a sociopath.

Could I walk around downtown with an A frame sign with big pictures of a dead girl horribly brutalized?

Is that free speech? Since when is this guy a member of the press exposing something awful?

That’s like playing with squirrel guts at the family reunion picnic.

Jeff Rosen

There is no way Facebook can screen all of the millions of photos every day. I also can’t see how the EMT was arrested. What he did was extreme bad taste but not a crime. I could see him get fired if this was against job regulations but a crime??

Daniel A Hunt

As a medical professional,an EMS worker is bound by LAW to keep patient information confidential. Even if the patient is dead and/or dies
DUH

Big Bear

They are only suing Facebook because of the potential for money.

xschild

This happens everywhere. Before parents or family memebers are notified of the demise of loved ones, insensitive people snap and post pictures. It is a big complaint in our area. The local law inforcement say they cannot properly and by law notify families because it is already posted on facebook. Especially horrific automobile wrecks.

Brett

way to try and profit off your daughters death
David Cearley

I’m sure Facebook pulled the pic as soon as they knew about it, so what is the family sueing for?
B P

Turn off the internet. I think the switch is on the wall over there…
InBus F Good

FB a non profit community bulletin board. Now I’ve heard everything.

http://paulgnewton.wordpress.com Paul G. Newton

i agree… not for profit… yeah and Donald Trump doesn’t want to make a scene.

Zero Tolerance

Photos taken by a guy named Mozzarela would certainly end in a big pizza! I think these parents found a way to try to make money out of the corpse. Americans are lawsuit addicted these days…
SCB

he made a conscious decision to put the photo on facebook, facebook is not to blame.
Emlee

Amazes me that some people are so clueless that they think Facebook knows what is in every photo posted….
peteny

We need to shut down the internet for all intents and purposes. Email should be administered by the USPS but only with positive ID and a small fee. Gov domains could remain but no others. My heart goes out to this family and the countless others whose lives have been ruined by Facebook. Facebook kills.

Daniel A Hunt

Yeah…GREAT idea….eliminate constitutionally protected free speech. You DO realise that you wouldnt be able to read or post to this story if the internet was shut off. Seems I heard of a certian president that wants to do the same thing…you didnt vote for the Kenyan-in-chief did you?
Frank R

Who is “we”?

You can shut down your own internet. Thankfully in the United States of America, at least for now, I can choose when, how, and with whom I communicate.
Commie Pig

Big Brother !! Cool idea but it’ll never happen.

LOL

Ambulance chasing lawyer hard at work!

David Shyster

This is not a personal injury case, the ambulance chasing metaphor doesn’t apply.

Sandy Underpants

Does anyone have a link to the pic?
B

Facebook is to blame. If they can catch and edit something in the story listed below then they could have caught this.

http://m.aol.com/popeater/default/article.do?artUrl=http://www.popeater.com/2011/03/16/nikki-sixx-facebook-censorship/

Fauge

These were taken down because someone saw them and reported them. Facebook has a link to do this, if this photo was reported as inappropriate it would be removed. There is no possible way any company could review each of the millions of photos posted daily.

Chris @ Austin

Yes sue Facebook. They should also sue the Internet for allowing this material to be posted to the World Wide Web. Since Al Gore created the internet he should be the one who gets sued. They could also sue portals to the internet, Microsoft Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. My comment is absurd as this lawsuit.
samuel9

Facebook is not responsible for content thats put on by someone. They have no control over it .
commenter

If Facebook does not wish to set guidelines as to what is appropriate for people to post then perhaps they should be forced to set a minimum age of 18 and display a notice upon entering the site of the possibility of encountering inappropriate, maybe even graphic, photos.
Rocco

What? How is facebook liable? What exactly did they do? Then if all pictures are subject to approval before posting, you will sue them for violating freedom of speech. Sue, sue, sue.

morag

First off the isn’t a freedom of speech issue since the government isn’t forcing Facebook to remove pictures. As far as Facebook being non profit that is nice but it’s still valued in excess of 30 million. I would agree that Facebook should be sues only if they failed to remove pictures immediately after notification of those graphic photos. To repeat, Facebook is a private entity so they can restrict whatever content they wish.

C Pace Lattin

Facebook is a for-profit corporation.

Danielle

There is no way FB could control what people post unless they disable the photo feature completely. The EMT made a horrid decision to post the photo. The EMT, therefore, should reap the punishment.
Keren

Absolutely NOT. Facebook cannot control (nor should they) everything that gets posted. This action was perpetrated by one man and he has been punished. Justice served. The scene would have been shown trial. My sincere condolences to the family. Truly callous behavior by EMT.
decalman

yes facebook should share the punishment,the person who posted the pictures is an idiot,I mean what was he thinking?,Facebook should set guidelines and rules on what is an appropriate post,there are young children using Facebook they see everything an adult sees.I use Facebook on occasion because it seems like one of the only ways to keep in touch with family,personally I don’t need it, I think it’s a complete waste of time.And I’m glad I didn’t see the photo.My deepest sympathy goes out to Carolines family,it’s just a horrible thing.

disco

your an idiot…how is facebook going to monitor every picture posted? If they refused to take it down once they were notified, totally different story, but as soon as they were made aware, they removed it. If you have a method on how they can screen the millions of photos posted per day, I’m, sure they would be more than happy to hear it.

Authorized User

“A bill will be introduced in Albany later this week, attempting to reign in the broad immunity Facebook currently enjoys.”

What?? Broad immunity? What the heck does that mean? Facebook committed no crime. No crime. Zero crime. The analogy to the jewelry store is idiotic. Yes, it’s terrible that the paramedic did this, but how is it Facebook’s fault? I’m sure they removed the image once they were made aware.

What’s next? Close down Smith and Wesson because someone got murdered using one of their guns? Shut down GM if someone gets hit by a car and dies?

Seriously. Get real. The paramedic was fired. Punishment served.
karen s

facebook should never have posted the pictures. there should have been more of a punishment the the ex-emt, a disgrace to his profession, and well his colleagues are to be rid of him. there was no redeeming value to the crime scene photo of a murder victim to going viral. spare me any remote reference to freedom of speech/expression. tho it’s hard to prove in some jurisdictions, emotional distress comes to mind as one way to go after facebook and musarella. this is not one of those “right to know” events. justice for the deceased and her family!

d

Yeah Facebook only has 2 or 3 comments to check out total systemwide and stuff so they should have been on top of this
Klaus Cook

Facebook did not post the pic, the EMT did, he got his punishment, case closed.

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NYC Family Sues Facebook Over Image Of Daughter’s Corpse

Parents Of Caroline Wimmer Disgusted By Social Site's Immunity

March 28, 2011 11:00 PM

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