Topless Photos Leaked After Car Accident

POSTED: 6:23 pm PDT July 19, 2011

UPDATED: 6:44 pm PDT July 19, 2011

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Sheriff's officials say the leaked photos taken by their investigators during an accident investigation did not come from their department."We were made aware of some photos that were out there on a website, they are photos that were taken by tech investigators as part of an accident investigation," said Shelly Castaneda, of the Kern County Sheriff's Office.In April a deputy and a woman's vehicle collided on Stockdale Highway at Stine Road. The woman suffered moderate injuries and hired the law firm Young and Nichols to represent her, the law firm then requested the photos from the accident."She authorized the release of those photos to her attorney's office, so we released those photos to the law firm," said Castaneda.Earlier this month those photos ended up on the public photo sharing website, Picasa. Those photos included shots of her exposed breast while she was receiving medical treatment.The Sheriff's department doesn't know who leaked the pictures, but says it wasn't them."We cannot speak to how or why or who posted those photos, but that was not done by the Sheriff's office," said Castaneda.Law firm representatives say they didn't release the photos and after some investigation of their own, they say their investigators' website was hacked and that's how photos were made public.But, the law firm also said that accident scene investigators should have never taken photos that included the woman's bare breast.The Sheriff's office says those photos were appropriate for documentation purposes because of her injuries."In this case the female party in this accident incurred a lot of upper torso injuries, so therefore they took upper torso pictures of her," said Castaneda.Sheriff's officials added that investigation accident scene photos are never made public. The law firm says their client's privacy was invaded by the photos being leaked and made worse because of the shots that included her breast.

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