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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Attorneys for the mother of a 15-year-old girl suing Los Angeles Unified over the teen's 2022 overdose in a bathroom at Bernstein High School in Hollywood want a judge to deny the district access to the girl's autopsy photos.
Elena Perez's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges that school officials knew there was a problem with drug use at the campus, but took no action that could have saved her daughter, Melanie Ramos.
The coroner's report stated that Melanie died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl on Sept. 13, 2022. On Thursday, Perez's lawyers filed court papers with Judge Lisa Jaskol asking her to deny the LAUSD's motion to compel the coroner's office to turn over the girl's 70 autopsy photos. The coroner's office previously produced the autopsy report to the district. A hearing is scheduled Jan. 18.
"LAUSD seeks the autopsy photographs to cause mental stress and agony on plaintiff Perez," Perez's lawyers argue in their court papers.
Attorneys for the district state in their court papers that they need the girl's autopsy photos to help prepare their defense and to establish a time of death. But Perez's lawyers counter that Melanie's family members have a common law privacy right in the death images and they may invoke such right to prevent the dissemination of post-mortem images of their loved one.
An LAUSD attorney has offered no opinions by medical professionals as to how the photographs would offer additional information regarding the time of death other than what is already available in the coroner's report and other documents, according to Perez's lawyers court papers.
"In fact, LAUSD has indicated in its discovery responses that as part of its defense it will seek to blame (Melanie) for her own death by alleging that she went off campus with a friend to purchase drugs at a local park and returned after hours to be found dead in one of the bathrooms of the school," according to Perez's lawyers' court papers, which further state that the district has no evidence to support that version of events.
Melanie was found dead on a bathroom floor at the school at about 8 p.m. after the family claims that school officials realized she was missing. Authorities said the girl ingested a pill she thought was Percocet, but was believed to be laced with fentanyl. Another girl who had been with Melanie earlier and had overdose symptoms survived.
Days later, police announced the arrest of a 15-year-old boy who allegedly sold the drug to the two students on the Bernstein campus, and a 16- year-old boy was arrested for allegedly peddling drugs to another student at nearby Lexington Park. LAPD Chief Michel Moore said both suspects were students at APEX Academy charter school, which is located on the campus of Bernstein High School.
The teen's death also prompted the district to announce that all of its campuses would be supplied with the anti-overdose medication Narcan. In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 10, known as Melanie's Law and named after Melanie Ramos. The law requires public schools to train employees on opioid prevention techniques and response, and to increase awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.
Perez sued the district in December 2022.