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Family Of Murder Victim Settles Lawsuit Over Crime Scene Pictures

An undated photograph of Amanda Plasse

Family members of a murder victim will receive $110,000 from the city of Chicopee, Massachusetts, and a public apology from the mayor to settle a lawsuit over police taking cell phone photos of the bloody crime scene.

After the office of Chicopee Mayor Richard Kos announced the settlement and issued the written apology Wednesday, the attorney for the plaintiffs said they were relieved to have come to an agreement with the city. 

Michelle Cruz, who represents the mother and two siblings of Amanda Plasse ,said the family can now concentrate on the upcoming trial of the accused murderer and advocate for a law that would make it a crime for first responders to take images of victims for personal use.

"This is one thing that will prevent anybody from having to go through what they went through," said Cruz.

Plasse, 20, was stabbed to death in her Chicopee apartment in August 2011.

Dennis Rosa-Ramon was arrested almost two years later and charged with the murder. He is scheduled to go on trial in January.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.