Kobe Bryant’s widow wept again in court on Friday after hearing photos of the bodies of her husband and daughter at an awards gala shared.
Vanessa Bryant, 40, is suing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department for invasion of privacy after discovering the images were circulating.
Her basketball superstar husband and 13-year-old daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas in January 2020.
On Friday, Luella Weireter, a firefighter’s wife, explained why she was filing an official complaint after seeing the shared photos.
Weireter’s cousin Keri Altobelli died in the helicopter crash that killed the Bryants, along with her husband John, a baseball coach, and their daughter Alyssa, a basketball teammate of Gianna’s.
Weireter, a former EMT, said she attended the February 2020 gala with her husband.
She said she was shocked to see the photos of the bodies shared by LA County Firefighter Tony Imbrenda, and other firefighters gathered around Imbrenda to look at the images, which Weireter said was like a party trick.
Vanessa Bryant, 40, will arrive at the Los Angeles Courthouse Friday for her case against the sheriff’s office and firefighter
Bryant broke down in tears on Friday after hearing photos of the bodies at a gala shared
Tony Imbrenda, an LA County firefighter, is accused of sharing photos of the bodies of Kobe and Gianna Bryant at a February 2020 gala
Bryant filed legal action against LA County firefighters and sheriffs after it was revealed they shared photos of the bodies of her dead husband and daughter. She will be seen in court on Friday
Bryant’s case opened on Wednesday and is expected to last two weeks. She will be seen on Friday
Weireter said she heard one of the firefighters say, “I can’t believe I just looked at Kobe’s burned body and I’m about to eat.”
Upon hearing the story, Bryant put her head in her hands and was seen rocking back and forth crying.
The day before, Bryant fled the courtroom in tears after a bartender was asked to describe photos he had been shown of the bodies.
Bryant got emotional when Victor Gutierrez, a bartender, was asked if he had seen her daughter’s body.
A somber Vanessa Bryant is seen outside the courthouse on Thursday after an emotional day where she heard graphic details of photos of her late daughter being shown
Vanessa Bryant leaves court for the day Thursday during the trial of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department for invasion of privacy
Bryant broke down in tears Thursday after hearing testimony about the sharing of photos of her husband and daughter’s bodies
Victor Gutierrez, a bartender, said he was shown photos by a deputy sheriff two days after the crash
Gutierrez had described what he had seen in the photos shown by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.
Luis Li, Bryant’s attorney, played CCTV footage of an off-duty sheriff’s deputy drinking at a bar to the jury in his opening statements Wednesday, showing the photos to Gutierrez, who shakes his head in dismay.
The lawyer then showed a picture of the men later laughing together.
Li described firefighters looking at the phone photos at an awards banquet two weeks later, and showed the jury an animated graph documenting its spread to nearly 30 people.
When Bryant heard Gutierrez being questioned, she cried, stood up and her attorney asked the presiding judge for permission to leave the courtroom.
“You don’t have to ask my permission,” the judge said.
Bryant did not return for the remainder of Gutierrez’s testimony.
Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna. The couple died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas in January 2020
The jury was shown surveillance clips from the bar on January 28, 2020 – two days after the crash.
Gutierrez described flinching at the photos, then admitted to sharing the condition of the victims’ bodies with five groups of people.
One person he told the photos to was Ralph Mendez, who later filed a complaint against the congressman who originally showed Gutierrez the photos.
“I was in disbelief, disappointed, disgusted and angry,” Mendez said.
“In his current position I felt the public’s trust rested on his shoulders and by showing photos of the victims he betrayed public trust.”
Earlier Thursday, the court heard Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, as well as one of the first responders and a coroner.
On Wednesday, the court heard in opening statements that a “culture of callousness” led to emergency medical service workers taking and sharing pictures of Bryant’s body.
Li said the cellphone pictures taken by a deputy and firefighter at the scene were “visual gossip” viewed “for laughs” and had no official purpose.
Vanessa Bryant, widow of Kobe Bryant, leaves a federal courthouse in Los Angeles on Wednesday
“They were shared by MPs playing video games,” Li said.
“They were repeatedly shared with people who had absolutely no reason to receive them.”
A county attorney defended the photos as an indispensable tool for emergency responders wanting to share information when they thought they could still save lives at the chaotic, dangerous and hard-to-reach accident site in the Calabasas Hills west of LA.
“On-site photography is essential,” said Jennifer Mira Hashmall.
Bryant frequently cried during her attorney’s presentation.
She was still wiping tears from her eyes during a break minutes later.
Vanessa Bryant (left) and Kobe Bryant arrive at the 2018 Oscars in Los Angeles
Li told jurors that learning the distribution of the photos a month after the crash, not from the county but from the Los Angeles Times, compounded her still dire affliction.
“January 26, 2020 was the worst day of Vanessa Bryant’s life. The county has made it much worse,” Li said.
“They poured salt into an open wound and rubbed it in.”
Li said the county had failed to conduct a thorough investigation to ensure every copy of the photo was accounted for, and that amid fears they would one day surface and their surviving children see them online, Bryant was being haunted by what what she was doing forever’.
During the defense’s opening statement, Hashmall told the jury that the fact that the pictures hadn’t appeared in more than two years showed that the sheriff’s and fire chiefs were doing their job.
“You are not online. You are not in the media. They haven’t even been seen by the plaintiffs themselves,” she said.
“It’s not an accident. That depends on how diligent they have been.”
Firefighters work at the scene of the helicopter crash that killed former NBA basketball star Kobe Bryant in Calabasas
Sheriff Alex Villanueva and department officials immediately brought everyone involved and ordered them to delete the images rather than conduct a lengthy official investigation that could further harm the families, she said.
“He chose what he saw as the only option – decisive action,” Hashmall said.
“He felt like every second counted.”
Hashmall told the jury the reason Li even wanted to show the bartender’s video, which she claimed was deceptively edited to show the men laughing together, was because the sheriff’s department received it the same day , on which they received a complaint from another player who witnessed it share.
She said the deputy was struggling emotionally with the difficulty of dealing with the accident scene and the barman was a longtime friend who he trusted.
“He pulled out his cell phone and it shouldn’t have happened,” she said.
“In one slip, in a moment of weakness, he showed these photos and he regretted it every day of his life.”
The defense attorney urged the jury to look past the grief of those who filed the lawsuit and focus on the matter before them.
“There is no doubt that these families have suffered,” she said.
Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka exits a federal court after attending Vanessa Bryant’s invasion of privacy trial against the Los Angeles County Sheriff and Fire Department
“It’s unspeakable. But in this case it’s not about the loss from the crash. It’s about the pictures.”
Chris Chester, whose wife Sara and daughter Payton also died in the crash, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, which is seeking unspecified millions.
The county has already agreed to pay $2.5 million to resolve a similar case brought by two families whose loved ones died in the Jan. 26, 2020 crash.
Bryant and Chester declined to come to terms.
The trial is expected to last about two weeks and witnesses are likely to be Vanessa Bryant and LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
Kobe Bryant, Gianna and other parents and players were flying to a girls basketball tournament when their chartered helicopter crashed in the fog.
Safety officials later blamed pilot error.