CHP dispatcher says suit over crash photos is misguided

LANCASTER – A California Highway Patrol dispatcher, speaking publicly for the first time about a high-profile lawsuit blaming him for photos of a dead teen proliferating on the Internet, said he feels sorry for her family but that he did nothing wrong.“Why am I here?” Thomas O’Donnell said in a quiet voice as he sat in his attorney’s office. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”The lawsuit accuses O’Donnell, 38, and another CHP dispatcher of illegally transmitting to the public gory images of car-crash victim Nicole “Nikki” Catsouras – turning her into an online sensation and further traumatizing her grieving Ladera Ranch family.Nikki took her father’s Porsche without his permission on Oct. 31, 2006, and slammed it into a toll plaza in Lake Forest. Just weeks after her death, pictures of her corpse began appearing on Web sites – many of which specialize in morbid curiosities.Her parents sued the CHP after the agency took responsibility for the leaked images, which are supposed to be used only...