Bianca Devins: NYDA's office shared nude pics and murder video of Instagram star, claims lawsuit

Warning: Graphic content

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Social media star Bianca Devins is believed to have been killed by her boyfriend, who then posted gruesome images of her body on Instagram, where it remained for the next 12 hours in July 2019. However, now according to an explosive complaint filed Thursday, July 15, the district attorney's office in upstate New York allegedly shared nude images of Devins that were taken from her phone after it was seized from the murder scene. The suit claims that footage of her death was also released to the press in violation of federal law.

Child pornography, the production, broadcast, distribution, and exhibition of which is a criminal offense, has become the cause of growing concern in recent years. Earlier, 'Counting On' star Josh Duggar was arrested in April on charges of possession and reception of child pornography.

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The brutal event surrounds Bianca Devins, a 17-year-old Utica resident who was on her way to college in July 2019 when was murdered in an SUV after a concert by one Brandon Clark, a man she'd met online two months earlier, news outlets revealed on Thursday, July 15. Clark rigged up a camera in his car to record the two having sex and then slitting her neck as she begged for her life. 

Clark, who was 21 at the time, had taken selfies next to Devins' body, posted them online and was subsequently charged by the Oneida District Attorney's Office, which used the films and photos as the main evidence to get the Cicero man to plead guilty to murder last year, the New York Post reported. 

Who are the prosecutors who shared Bianca Devins' videos?

“When confronted, Assistant District Attorneys Sarah DeMellier and Michael Nolan admitted the DA’s office had shared the content,” the lawsuit reads. Devins's mother, Kimberley, who had always feared that one day the images would be released and go viral online, was assured by the two Oneida prosecutors that the tapes would never be broadcast. However, she was horrified to see that the office had shared them with CBS 48 Hours, A&E, a Clark confidante with a large YouTube channel and perhaps MTV and Peacock TV, according to the suit.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Sarah is the Assistant DA at the Oneida County District Attorney's Office and has been in that position for over nine years since 2012. She has a doctorate in law from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and is also a graduate of Le Moyne College. She also worked for over seven years at the NBT bank.

Michael is also Assistant DA at Oneida County. He is registered with New York State, Office of Court Administration, according to Opengovus.com. He graduated from Albany Law School and admitted to practice in New York State in 2006.

“Kimberly was shattered that her daughter’s murder video and sex video had been released.” The bereaved mother told The New York Post that her daughter's death was her "worst nightmare," and that it still seems like a horror movie two years later. “Our family is forced to live the violence over and over on social media because of what the murderer posted. It’s unbearable that the ones who were supposed to protect Bianca – the DA’s Office – are instead engaging in child pornography as if she has no right to privacy,” she said.

Will the prosecutors be charged?

“The DA’s office has been reckless and casual with who they provide my daughter’s private images and last living moments with; meanwhile they refuse to let her own family see the evidence," she added. It is not a norm for governmental agencies to not share such images out of respect for the deceased's family members. Even if the evidence is considered public, the risk of releasing it outweighs the public's desire to view it, prompting most law enforcement agencies to conceal such material, or at the very least fight against it, the news outlet reveals.

Attorneys for Devins' estate claim the material was willingly handed over to curry favor after the Oneida DA's office was represented badly in a separate case that was featured on NBC Dateline. “The Oneida County District Attorneys office was embarrassed by the media’s portrayal of its prosecution in the unrelated case of Kaitlyn Conley in the murder of Dr. Mary Yoder and regretted not defending itself in the 2018 [NBC] Dateline feature on the case,” the lawsuit alleges, terming the office’s actions as “unconscionable.” It added that they had "enthusiastically" turned over "illegal evidence to them that exploited Bianca’s privacy and rights, not to mention federal child pornography laws.” 

“To date, Bianca’s own mother has not seen the horrifying videos of her daughter’s last moments on earth, she seemingly being the only one so restricted,” the lawsuit states. Oneida prosecutors, according to Carrie Goldberg, the attorney representing Bianca Devins' estate, “must be held responsible for distributing snuff films and child pornography featuring Bianca.”

“It hurts my heart and confuses my brain that a 17-year-old murder victim would be further abused by authorities who gave no damn about her privacy. Bianca will be vindicated here,” Goldberg said, adding: “And the world should be on notice that even possessing sexual material of Bianca – or anybody under the age of 18 – is illegal.”