Five years after grisly photographs of an Orange County, Calif., teen killed in a car accident began appearing online, the young woman's family has settled a lawsuit filed against the California Highway Patrol for its role in disseminating the graphic images taken at the scene, reports the
Los Angeles Times
.
The photos from the Halloween 2006 accident show 18-year-old
Nicole "Nikki" Catsouras
maimed and nearly decapitated in her father's mangled Porsche. The pictures were taken by CHP investigators and were never intended for public release but were leaked by two Highway Patrol dispatchers.
Under terms of the settlement, the Catsouras family received about $2.37 million in damages.