Last month Staten Island EMT Frank Musarella, 46, a retired NYPD detective, was arrested for posting on his Facebook page a crime scene photo of a murder victim taken with his cell phone. If convicted of official misconduct, he could face up to a year in jail. But victim Caroline Wimmer's parents, who found their daughter's strangled and beaten body in March after not hearing from her for a few days, are filing a notice of claim in state Supreme Court to hold the city, the NYPD, the FDNY and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta accountable.
Speaking to reporters in front of her Staten Island home on Thursday, Caroline's mother Martha Wimmer told reporters, "I didn't see the picture. I don't want to see the picture. I don't want anybody to see the picture. I called 911 to help me, not to hurt me. This EMT had no right to take a picture of my daughter (after she was) strangled, or to put it on the Internet for morons to look at." The family's lawyer says, "There may not be money involved," and the legal action is a platform for a future federal lawsuit against all pertinent parties, including Facebook.
In a statement sent to the Staten Island Advance, Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said, "That someone would take her photo under these circumstances is at once disturbing and despicable. We have a robust reporting infrastructure and a large team of professional reviewers who remove thousands of photos a day from the site that violate our policies." The Wimmers want to force Facebook to increase controls on images that appear on the site or else shut down altogether.
The suit also cites the landlord of Greenleaf Arms apartments "for lack of minimal adequate security, intercom and lighting, thereby permitting a face-to-face encounter between (Ms. Wimmer) and her alleged killer, Calvin Lawson." Lawson was arrested in May; Martha Wimmer believes rumors on MySpace that Lawson was cheating on his girlfriend with her daughter may have motivated the killing.
