GUILTY NY - Caroline Wimmer, 26, found strangled, Staten Island, 28 March 2009

[Blue_Dolphin308]

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York City emergency medical technician is facing misdemeanor charges after being accused of taking a picture of a female murder victim and then posting it to his Facebook page.
Mark Musarella, 49, was in court Thursday awaiting arraignment on charges of misdemeanor official misconduct. The retired New York Police detective is accused of posting the picture of a 26-year-old woman's corpse. The woman was found strangled with a hair-dryer cord March 30 on Staten Island, according to authorities, and a 28-year-old man has been charged in her death.
According to Musarella's lawyer, Edward J. Pavia Jr., the appearance of the photo on the social networking site was a technical mistake and not a morbid act. Pavia said years of working as a detective instinctively led Musarella to take the picture after he was called to the scene of the death.

 

[r0tflcopter]

um... facebook previews the uploaded pic for you before it loads. "mistake" my butt.

and wth is this guy doing saving pictures of corpses to his computer...D:

 

[elle1919]

Everyday I am more and more ashamed of what this world is coming to. Everyday there is more and more evil. When will it stop?

 

[kittenish]

If it was an accident, then it's a very unfortunate one.

But I just don't understand, if he is an EMT, and no longer a detective, why does he need to take pictures. And from his CELL PHONE? He should have known better.

 

[Kat]

Why would anyone upload a picture of a murder victim to a social networking site in the first place? :waitasec:

 

[Syttende]

The first thing that popped into my head is that maybe he was trying to get information in the case by posting the picture of a recognizable murder victim on a popular website...? I guess that'd require him to be pretty thoughtless.

Still, it's creepy that he even took a picture in the first place.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

The parents of a murder victim are suing Facebook after a paramedic pleaded guilty to photographing their daughter's corpse and posting the image to the social networking site, according to court documents.

The parents are also suing their daughter's convicted murderer, Calvin Lawson, paramedic Musarella, the city of New York and Greenleaf Arms Incorporated -- the company that owns the apartment building where Wimmer's body was found.
The pair are also suing Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano and Richmond University Medical Center, where Musarella had been employed.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/29/new.york.facebook.suit/index.html?iref=NS1

 

[Missizzy]

That is absolutely appalling!! I am so hopeful that the family prevails. Nothing will bring back their daughter but this travesty and resulting suit might protect other families from similar heartache.

 

[peeples]

I feel bad for the parents.. I really really do...
But they parents are going overboard with who they are suing. The guilty party (EMT) needs sued in civil court.. but the apartment building? Her work??? those make no sense

 

[Hopeful One]

How sick. But it doesn't state in the article WHY he posted it. What was the point? I'm confused.

 

[colette]

I have no problem with them suing the guy that took or posted the pictures, I do have a problem with them suing Facebook. It appears as if they are trying to make money off this, as in who has the deepest pockets. Facebook can not control every picture someone posts. If the family complained and Facebook refused to delete the picture then I can see the suit, but I don't think this is the case.

 

[OkieGranny]

From May 2010:

http://www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2010/05/suspect_convicted_of_stranglin.html

Calvin Lawson, 29, initially sat stone-faced when jurors convicted him of slaying Caroline Wimmer, 26, on March 28, 2009, in her Greenleaf Avenue studio apartment.

But the stocky defendant erupted minutes later when... Lawson placed his hands beneath the defense table and tried to flip it as he stood up, said witnesses. Three of the table’s bolted legs came out of their moorings, and the table shattered...

Prosecutors said Lawson killed Ms. Wimmer over allegations that she had told his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, he was cheating on her with another woman.

From March 2011:

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/murder_saga_ends_as_former_cop.html

In December, Musarella pleaded guilty in Stapleton Criminal Court to official misconduct, a misdemeanor, and to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct, stemming from the incident... Musarella, a retired and decorated NYPD Emergency Services Unit detective, was later fired from RUMC...

Donovan said he agreed to the deal because it ensured that Musarella lost his EMT license. He would not have been required to relinquish it even had he been convicted at trial of official misconduct, said the D.A.

Under the agreement, Judge Charles Troia vacated Musarella's official misconduct conviction and sentenced him to a conditional discharge for disorderly conduct.

It also says Calvin Lawson was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.