Rihanna’s bruised face photo after being then-assaulted by ex singer Chris Brown, allegedly leaked by two Los Angeles police officers, will be unaccounted for because the mentioned officers won’t face criminal charges, Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.
Apparently the argument in the three-year investigation boiled down to proving if TMZ paid the accused officers for the photo, and not if they leaked the photo, in order to be criminally charged.
The Los Angeles Times via USA Today obtained a copy of the March 28 report on Thursday and the main details are:
Officers Blanca Lopez and Rebecca Reyes may still get fired; they are set to appear before disciplinary panels in August.
Brown, Rihanna’s then-boyfriend, was arrested on suspicion of beating the Grammy winner on Feb. 8, 2009, leaving her bloody and bruised.
Prosecutors allege the photo was leaked after a stack of photographs of Rihanna’s injuries was left lying on a desk at the Wilshire police station; Reyes took a picture of the top photo with her phone.
Prosecutors say Reyes later emailed the image from her LAPD email address to her personal email address.
Reyes and Lopez were roommates at the time; phone records showed that they made multiple phone calls to Fox Television and TMZ in February.
Despite a search of Reyes’ and Lopez’s bank accounts, a money trail was not discovered tying the leak to them, prosecutors said.
The leaked photo caused fans to become outraged and prompted a national conversation about domestic violence and some believe the photo is the cause for much of the vitriol pitted against Brown still today.
However, in order to prove the officers broke the law, prosecutors said in the report they “must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Reyes and Lopez disclosed the image of Robyn Rihanna Fenty to TMZ and obtained money in exchange for this disclosure.”
“As such, although both Reyes and Lopez’s actions are suspicious, they are insufficient to support a criminal prosecution,” the report says.
The prosecutor’s report further implied other LAPD personnel had access to the photos, further suggesting doubt.
Rihanna’s attorney Donald Etra said Thursday he does not know at this time whether the singer wants to pursue any further legal action.
“Apparently this was an internal decision by the district attorney. A victim’s privacy should be protected,” Etra said.
Brown pleaded guilty to attacking Rihanna and was ordered to serve five years on supervised probation and to complete six months of community service including roadside cleanup, graffiti removal, and manual labor.
