A judge Thursday granted the Los Angeles Unified School District access to the autopsy photos of a 15-year-old girl whose mother is suing the district regarding the teen's 2022 overdose in a bathroom at Bernstein High School in Hollywood, images the district's lawyers maintain is vital to their defense in the case.
Plaintiff 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.
Perez's lawyers previously filed court papers with Judge Lisa R. 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.
But on Thursday, the judge ruled in favor of the district.
"The court finds good cause ... and orders the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office to comply with the Los Angeles Unified School District's subpoena for production of (the photos)," the judge wrote.
LAUSD lawyers maintained in their court papers that autopsy photos can be "highly relevant to determining time of death, as a review of literature from the National Institutes of Health makes clear."
The date that Melanie died, she and a fellow student skipped class and bought drugs, then sometime later that afternoon they entered a school bathroom and ingested the drugs. Melanie died of a drug overdose.
The time of death is a key issue, the district lawyers maintained in their court papers.
However, Perez's attorneys argued in their court papers that the LAUSD wants the autopsy photographs in order to "cause mental stress and agony on plaintiff Perez."
Perez's lawyers further maintained 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.
But attorneys for the district counter in their court papers that they do not object to reasonable safeguards to protect Perez's privacy.
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.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
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.
Then-Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said both suspects were students at APEX Academy charter school, which is located on the Bernstein High School campus.
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.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok