Court Battle Brewing Over Kurt Cobain Death Scene Photos

A Seattle television host is convinced that photos taken by the police at Kurt Cobain's death scene will prove the Nirvana frontman didn't commit suicide, and he's going to court to force the city to unseal them.

Billboard reports that Richard Lee, who for years has publicly called for a deeper inquisition into Cobain's death and hosts a regular local-access TV series called Now See It Person to Person: Kurt Cobain Was Murdered, has sued the city of Seattle and its police department for access to the photos. He's due in court today to argue his case.

The city maintains that these records should remain sealed to protect the Cobain family's privacy, and their position is backed up by Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, and the couple's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. According to Billboard's report, neither Love nor Frances have seen the photos, yet they fear attracting fresh attention from overzealous fans.

"I have had to cope with many personal issues because of my father's death," Frances wrote in a statement that's excerpted in the report. "Coping with even the possibility that those photographs could be made public is very difficult. Further sensationalizing it through the release of these pictures would cause us indescribable pain."

The Seattle Police Department released a pair of photos from Cobain's death scene last year, which is what prompted Lee to file his lawsuit. "Sometimes people believe what they read … some of the disinformation from some of the books, that this was a conspiracy," a Seattle PD detective said at the time. "That’s completely inaccurate. It’s a suicide. This is a closed case."

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