Vanessa Bryant broke down in tears at the stand on Friday as she recalled the moment she learned first responders leaked images of her husband Kobe’s grisly helicopter crash.
Bryant cried profusely and gasped as she testified that she had to run outside her house after seeing media reports of the pictures so her daughters wouldn’t see her cry.
The late NBA legend’s wife said she was breastfeeding her youngest child when she heard the news, saying, “I felt like I wanted to run down the block and scream.”
“I can’t escape my body. I can’t escape my feelings,’ she said in court.
Bryant confessed she suffers from severe panic attacks amid fears that graphic images of her dead husband and daughter may one day surface online.
“I live in fear every day seeing and seeing these images on social media,” adding that she has never seen the images.
Vanessa Bryant, widow of the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant, arrives at LA courthouse where she sobbed as she recalled learning about the graphic images
Brian Jordan, a retired LA County firefighter, claimed he was instructed by his superiors to take photos of the fatal helicopter crash site (pictured).
Jordan denied sending the images to anyone outside of the sheriff or fire department
“I never want to see those photos,” she said. “I want to remember them for who they were.
Bryant is seeking millions in damages from Los Angeles County after learning first responders allegedly sent bloody pictures of her between Kobe and Gianna.
Several witnesses involved in the incident have testified that they saw the images, which forced Bryant to collapse repeatedly throughout the trial.
She was even forced to leave the courtroom last week after a bartender, Victor Gutierrez, testified that a sheriff’s deputy showed him pictures of severed body parts after the crash.
Earlier this week, LA Deputy Sheriff Michael Russell announced that he texted pictures of the wreckage to Santa Clarita Deputy Sheriff Ben Sanchez the day after the incident.
Russell said he was playing the popular shooting game Call of Duty with Sanchez when he told the deputy he had crime scene photos he said he received from fellow LA resident Joey Cruz, TMZ reported.
Los Angeles Fire Department officials reportedly knew that sharing graphic images of the crash that killed Bryant would land them in hot water as they were labeled “plutonium” and ordered to get rid of them.
Sky Cornell, a public information officer for the LA County Fire Department, told a jury Tuesday that first responders went into damage control after it became public that they shared photos of the helicopter crash involving 41-year-old Bryant and his daughter Gianna were killed. 13, in 2020.
Cornell, who admitted to investigators that he “wanted to see Kobe” when the pictures were shared, said an officer warned the department about what they were doing, TMZ reported.
“Just a reminder folks, there are no secrets! One way or another, people get exposed,” the email said, according to Cornell.
He added that colleague Tony Imbrenda, who admitted sharing the photos at an awards gala, called the images “plutonium” and that he “needed to get rid of them.”
Imbrenda, another public information official, was grilled Wednesday when he testified that he shared images of the helicopter crash during the 2020 Golden Mike Awards ceremony, a journalism awards gala in Southern California.
Vanessa Bryant (right) filed a lawsuit over the alleged misconduct, in which both the fire department and the sheriff’s office are seeking unspecified damages
Cornell claimed that was when he first came across the photos, none of which showed Bryant’s body but did show other human remains.
Cornell told the court Thursday that while the setting was not suitable for sharing the graphic images, he claimed they were used as a “training opportunity.”
Arlin Kahan, another fire official, also testified Thursday that he was the person who took the first photos of the crash and sent them to Imbrenda, who Kahan described as “the one who controls the photos.”
Kahan claimed his photos were intended to document the accident site, not to take photos of human remains.
Widow Vanessa Bryant’s attorney dismissed the claim, suggesting that a firefighter took the photos of the crash for documentation purposes, not Kahan.
“You weren’t even a first responder,” the attorney said, according to the insider.
Kahan also claimed it was his intention to delete the photos after the investigation was complete.
On Monday, Brian Jordan, a retired LA County firefighter, claimed he was ordered by his superiors to take photos of the helicopter crash site — orders the fire chiefs deny ever having issued.
Jordan denied sending the images to anyone outside of the sheriff or fire department, but at times appeared confused about what was happening.
This is an evolving story.