His daughter Gianna, then 13 years old, and seven others, including the basketball star, were murdered in a helicopter crash two years ago, at the age of 41.
Pictures of Kobe Bryant’s corpse were taken by paramedics “for a laugh,” according to the NBA star
The LA Lakers legend perished in a helicopter tragedy two years ago.
A court has heard that emergency personnel who responded to the collision scene of LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant snapped images and distributed them online “for a chuckle.”
It has recently discovered that images of Bryant were taken by Los Angeles County police and firefighters and sent repeatedly with persons who had absolutely no reason to receive them”.
This week Vanessa, Kobe’s wife, testified in a trial for invasion of privacy.
Luis Li, her attorney, told the jury in his opening statement that the photos taken by the deputy and fire captain on their cellphones at the scene were “visual gossip” seen “for a chuckle” and served no official function.
Deputies who were playing electronic games “shared them,” Mr. Li added.
“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
At the chaotic, dangerous, and difficult-to-reach crash scene in the Calabasas hills west of Los Angeles, a lawyer for the county justified the images as a crucial tool for emergency service employees wanting to convey information while they thought they might still save lives.
“Site photography is essential,” Jennifer Mira Hashmall stated.
Mrs. Bryant frequently sobbed throughout her lawyer’s argument.
As they took a break a few minutes later, she was still dabbing her eyes with a tissue.
Mr. Li told the jury that learning about the images’ dissemination a month after the collision, not from the county but from the Los Angeles Times, added insult to injury.
In her own words: “January 26 2020 was the worst day of Vanessa Bryant’s life. The county made it much worse,”
“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 showed the jury footage from a bar’s surveillance camera showing an off-duty sheriff’s officer drinking and flashing images of himself to a bartender who shakes his head in disbelief.
Afterwards, the attorney displayed a photo of the men smiling together.
During the awards ceremony two weeks later, Mr. Li told the jury, “Firefighters were looking at the phone images on their phones,” and he exhibited an interactive chart to the jury showing how the photos had been shared around over 30 people.
Mr. Li claimed that the county did not conduct a thorough investigation to ensure that all copies of the photo were accounted for, and that Mrs. Bryant “will be haunted by what they did forever” because she is worried that the photos will resurface and that her surviving children may see them online.
In her opening statement on the defense’s behalf, Ms. Hashmall argued that the absence of these images from the media for over two years is evidence that the sheriff’s and fire departments’ respective leadership did their duties.
“They’re not online. They’re not in the media. They’ve never even been seen by the plaintiffs themselves,” she claimed.
“That is not an accident. That is a function of how diligent they were.”
“He picked what he considered as the only choice – decisive action,” Ms. Hashmall added.
“He felt like every second mattered.”
She added that rather than perform a lengthy formal investigation that could further injure the families, Sheriff Alex Villanueva and department officials immediately gathered all those involved and forced them to erase the photos.
