Judge Rules On Release of Kurt Cobain Death-Scene Photos
Conspiracy theorist Richard Lee won't be granted access to unreleased, and potentially grisly, death-scene photos of Kurt Cobain, a judge ruled today.
Lee, a Seattle television host, had sued both the city and local police trying to gain access to the images. But Superior Court judge Theresa Doyle shot him down on July 31, saying he hadn't properly filed his suit and hadn't allowed Seattle adequate time to respond to his initial request for photos of the late Nirvana legend.
“Of course I will refile,” Lee, whose local public access show is titled "Now See It Person To Person: Kurt Cobain Was Murdered," told the Seattle Times. “I’ve never heard of a case where an issue of such public importance was dismissed because of such trivial circumstances.”
The Seattle Police Department has steadfastly refused to release photos of Cobain from the April 5, 1994 scene of his suicide by self-inflicted shotgun wound, citing privacy concerns for surviving family members.
"I am routinely called a murderer and receive death threats by conspiracy-theory obsessed individuals who believe I was somehow involved in my husband’s death," Cobain's widow Courtney Love has said, "and the public release of these images would only exacerbate such activity and further endanger my safety."
Even while dismissing Richard Lee's case, however, Doyle added that he is still allowed to submit public records requests in the matter of Cobain's death.
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