Lawsuit Seeking Release of Kurt Cobain Death-Scene Photos Dismissed by Seattle Judge
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by conspiracy theorist Richard Lee, who had sued the city of Seattle and its police department in an attempt to gain access to potentially graphic death-scene photos of Kurt Cobain that have never been released to the public.
According the the Seattle Times, on Friday (July 31), Superior Court Judge Theresa Doyle ruled that Lee improperly filed his lawsuit and didn't allow the city adequate time to respond to his initial request for the photos.
Lee, who has a local public access show called Now See It Person To Person: Kurt Cobain Was Murdered, is convinced that Cobain was killed, and did not commit suicide. His lawsuit caught the attention of the late Nirvana frontman's widow, Courtney Love, and daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Both filed declarations imploring the city not to release the photos.
Frances Bean wrote, “Releasing the photographs would physically endanger me and my mother. My mother and I both receive a constant stream of death threats from very disturbed individuals who are obsessed with my father. Once, a stalker broke into my home while I was on vacation, and laid in wait for three days. This person’s twisted explanation was that he was meant to be with me because my father’s soul had entered my body.”
Courtney Love declared, “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, and the public release of these images would only exacerbate such activity and further endanger my safety.”
Lee insists he will continue to take legal action in order to have the photos released. "Of course I will refile,” Lee said after the judge's decition. “I’ve never heard of a case where an issue of such public importance was dismissed because of such trivial circumstances." While the judge did dismiss this case, she did say that Lee is allowed to submit public records requests in the future.
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