The LA Lakers icon was killed in a helicopter crash two years ago
Emergency workers who attended the crash scene of LA Lakers icon Kobe Bryant took photos and shared them with people “for a laugh”, a court has been told.
The 41-year-old basketball star was killed in a helicopter accident two year’s ago alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.
It has since emerged that pictures of Bryant were taken by Los Angeles County deputies and firefighters and shared repeatedly with people who “had absolutely no reason to receive them”.
Kobe’s wife Vanessa has been in court this week in an invasion of privacy trial.
Her lawyer, Luis Li, told jurors in his opening statement that mobile phone pictures shot at the scene by a deputy and fire captain were “visual gossip” viewed “for a laugh” and had no official purpose.
“They were shared by deputies playing video games,” Mr Li said.
“They were shared repeatedly with people who had absolutely no reason to receive them.”
Vanessa Bryant dissolved into tears as her lawyer addressed the jury in opening statements, saying the 8 L.A. County Sheriff's deputies who took photos of the bodies of her husband and child took the pictures "for a laugh like they were souvenirs." https://t.co/ju4X3d37i1
— TMZ (@TMZ) August 10, 2022
A lawyer for the county defended the photographs as an essential tool for emergency service workers seeking to share information when they thought they might still save lives at the chaotic, dangerous and hard-to-reach crash scene in the Calabasas hills west of LA.
“Site photography is essential,” Jennifer Mira Hashmall said.
Mrs Bryant cried frequently during her lawyer’s presentation.
She was still wiping tears from her eyes minutes afterwards during a break.
Mr Li told jurors that learning a month after the crash about the photos’ circulation not from the county but the Los Angeles Times compounded her still-raw suffering.
“January 26 2020 was the worst day of Vanessa Bryant’s life. The county made it much worse,” Mr Li said.
“They poured salt in an open wound and rubbed it in.”
Vanessa Bryant quietly sobbed as her lawyer described for jurors a photo that a sheriff’s deputy purportedly shared with random people at a bar days after Kobe Bryant and Gianna died in a helicopter crash.
“They poured salt in an unhealable wound.” https://t.co/IXpE3YdfFR
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) August 10, 2022
Mr Li played jurors CCTV footage of an off-duty sheriff’s deputy drinking at a bar and showing the photos to the barman, who shakes his head in dismay.
The lawyer then showed an image of the men laughing together later.
Mr Li described firefighters looking at the phone photos two weeks later at an awards banquet, and showed the jury an animated chart documenting their spread to nearly 30 people.
Mr Li said the county failed to conduct a thorough investigation to make sure every copy of the photo was accounted for, and because of the fear that they will someday surface, and her surviving children may see them online, Mrs Bryant “will be haunted by what they did forever”.
During the defence’s opening statement, Ms Hashmall told jurors the fact the pictures have not appeared in more than two years shows leaders in the sheriff’s and fire services did their jobs.
“They’re not online. They’re not in the media. They’ve never even been seen by the plaintiffs themselves,” she said.
“That is not an accident. That is a function of how diligent they were.”
Sheriff Alex Villanueva and department officials immediately brought in all those involved and ordered them to delete the pictures, rather than conduct a long official investigation that might harm the families further, she said.
“He picked what he viewed as the only option — decisive action,” Ms Hashmall said.
“He felt like every second mattered.”
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