Vanessa Bryant’s federal lawsuit alleges that photos taken of the victims’ remains, including those of her daughter and husband, were shared in settings irrelevant to the investigation, including at a bar and an awards gala.
Her attorney, Luis Li, presented a flow chart showing how initial photos spread from one deputy to more than a dozen deputies and more than a dozen members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Some photos were shared between lawmakers as they played the Call of Duty video game, Li said in his opening remarks.
Vanessa Bryant wiped away tears as Li described how sheriff’s deputies took and shared the photos.
“They took photos of broken bodies … close-ups of limbs, of burned flesh,” the attorney said. “It shakes your conscience.”
Surveillance footage played in court showed one of the MPs in a bar showing a photograph to a bartender, who flinched and turned away after seeing the image.
“Never in her worst nightmares did[Bryant]think the police and first responders would go — and they would be the ones — to take pictures of Kobe and Gianna’s remains for no reason,” Li said.
The attorney said county staffers did not cause the Jan. 26, 2020 accident but accused them of taking advantage of it, saying, “You poured salt on a wound that is not healing.”
The defense stressed that the photos were not released online or to the media, and warned jurors to separate the tragedy of the crash from the facts of the case through the photos.
“The families suffered untold losses … but that was the helicopter crash,” said Mira Hashmall, an attorney representing LA County. “This case is about the first responders and what they did.”
A jury of six women and four men was selected for the case. These include a nun, someone who works in TV production for NBC Universal, a college student, a real estate investor, a pharmaceutical researcher, a computer science professor, and a restaurateur.
second plaintiff in litigation
The trial is expected to last about two weeks and witnesses are likely to be Vanessa Bryant and LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. The lawsuit, filed in September 2020, seeks undisclosed damages and alleges civil rights violations, negligence, emotional distress and invasion of privacy.
Wednesday’s trial ended with the testimony of Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, who sobbed as he described being Kobe Bryant’s best friend and Gianna’s godfather. On the day of the crash, Pelinka said he helped Vanessa Bryant get assurances from the sheriff that the site was safe from anyone attempting to take photos of the scene.
Pelinka also shared the terror, fear and sadness he saw in Vanessa Bryant after she learned the crime scene photos were being circulated among lawmakers. His testimony will continue Thursday morning.
In addition to Bryant, a second plaintiff is Christopher Chester, who lost his wife Sarah and their daughter Payton in the crash. Chester’s attorney Jerome Jackson said the crime scene photos may have captured disturbing scenes of Sarah’s remains.
“Why would anyone use the same photos for ballroom banter and cocktail banter?” said Jackson.
The defense claimed there was valid reason for site photos because the crash occurred a mile up a mountainside at an altitude of 1,250 feet. Hashmall said the MP took photos of more than just bodies.
If the deputy hadn’t documented the scene during his training, Hashmall said, he wouldn’t have been able to alert the command center, which was tasked not only with search and recovery but also with fighting wildfire triggered by the crash .
“If you don’t have a picture,” she said, “you can’t formulate an answer.”
The defense acknowledged the photos shouldn’t have spread like this, but claimed that the county’s early actions effectively contained them.
“We are being sued for images that are not online, are not in the media and have never been seen by the plaintiff,” Hashmall said.
Bryant’s attorney told jurors he will show that the county’s actions have not fully stemmed the spread of the photos and that they may still surface online.
After the accident, Sheriff Villanueva told CNN that the department was conducting an investigation and eight deputies were facing administrative action over allegations that they shared images of the crash site with people outside the investigation.
The sheriff said in March 2020 that all photos of the scene held by the deputies had been deleted. Months later, Vanessa Bryant’s attorneys filed a motion alleging that the department’s actions amounted to the destruction of evidence.
CNN’s Eric Levenson and Stella Chan contributed to this report.