Court halts release of Medical Examiner records into Celeste Rivas death case
A court order requested by the Los Angeles Police Department has halted the release of records and details associated with the death of an Inland Empire teenager whose body was found in a Tesla belonging to an R&B singer, according to officials.
In a news release, the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner said it received the order at 10:54 a.m. Monday. The security hold on all information, including the cause and manner of death and Medical Examiner report for 15-year-old Celeste Rivas, means nothing can be released or posted online until further notice.
Rivas was publicly identified as the person whose remains were found in the trunk of singer d4vd's car on Sept. 13, less than a week after they were discovered in the Hollywood Tow yard on Sept. 8. She had last been seen at her Lake Elsinore home on April 5, 2024, when she was 13.
The LAPD confirmed to CBS LA last week that d4vd and Rivas were involved in a romantic relationship.
In a statement, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said the LAPD's request is at odds with the Medical Examiner's mission to maintain full transparency.
"The Department's mission is to have full transparency with the community by providing information about our cases to empower people to make changes that save lives," Ukpo said. "Since becoming the department head, I've worked on eradicating the practice of placing security holds on Medical Examiner cases simply by law enforcement request. The practice of security holds is virtually unheard of in other counties and has not been proven to improve outcomes in the legal system. We are dedicated to serving our community with full transparency; however, the law precludes us from doing so while the court order remains in this case."
The Medical Examiner said another security hold request by the LAPD was denied on Sept. 15 due to the lack of justification to warrant the hold.
"That order was sought only to ensure detectives from Robbery-Homicide Division learned of important information surrounding her death before the media and the public," LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division wrote in a statement. "The order was not sought to undermine transparency."
Contrary to media reports in recent days, the LAPD's chief of detectives told CBS LA last week that d4vd, the 20-year-old rising star known by the legal name David Anthony Burke, is not yet viewed as a suspect. Her cause of death has yet to be determined, which means the case hasn't been ruled a homicide.
The head of LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division, Captain Scot Williams, vehemently refuted TMZ's reporting on the case in an email to CBS LA. He first criticized TMZ's reporting during an interview with KNX News.
"I will tell you for the record that TMZ's reporting that Celeste Rivas's body was frozen when it was discovered is false. Their reporting that she was decapitated is also false," Williams wrote. "We have no evidence at this time that Celeste Rivas' body was taken to Santa Barbara County where it was dismembered. I have no idea where TMZ got their information or what led to their reporting of those details, but they are not accurate. "
