On Wednesday, August 10, Vanessa Bryant sobbed softly in the courtroom as her attorney described to the jury the gruesome nature of a photograph a sheriff’s deputy allegedly showed to a group of patrons at a random bar two days after the horrific accident. The photo apparently showed the victim’s serious injuries. As a result of the tragic helicopter crash in January 2020, Vanessa’s NBA star husband Kobe Bryant, their daughter Gianna and seven others were killed, leaving the mother in a vulnerable position.
Defense attorney Luis Li claimed that a witness who was present at the Baja California Bar & Grill in Norwalk at the time in question was so offended by Deputy Joey Cruz’s actions that he filed an official complaint against Cruz with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office and claimed the MP “showed pictures of [Kobe’s] decapitated body.”
During his dramatic opening speech, Li produced a video for the judges that showed Deputy Cruz lounging at the bar and waving his cellphone at a bartender to show him something. The footage was played as part of Li’s presentation. The bartender seems really shaken by what he sees and then turns to leave the place.
Li told the 10-member jury selected earlier that day, on Wednesday, August 10, to hear the expected 10-day trial for the grieving widow’s privacy invasion lawsuit against Los Angeles County : “January 26, 2020 was and always will be the worst day of Vanessa Bryant’s life.” The trial is related to the grieving widow’s lawsuit against Los Angeles County. “Employees of the district government took advantage of the accident. As a reminder of their trip, they snapped and shared pictures of Kobe and Gianna. They were adding salt to a wound that could not be healed.”
Firefighters and other first responders “walked around the debris from the helicopter crash and took pictures of the broken remains found there. They got extreme close-ups of the limbs and charred flesh. It shakes the senses and conscience “if we are to believe Li. He even went so far as to post an audio recording of a detective admitting his own wife had refused to see the images after calling them a “pile of meat.” The detective was the one who made the confession.
Eight months after the horrifying event on January 26, 2020, Vanessa Bryant filed a complaint. In the complaint, she claimed that the idea of people “gazing” at graphic photos of her husband and 13-year-old daughter caused her significant emotional pain and made her feel “sick” physically. She claims the photos were taken by emergency responders “for their personal enjoyment.”
“When MPs showed the unnecessary photos to their colleagues in situations unrelated to the investigation of the accident, they quickly became a topic of discussion within the department. One MP even tried to impress a woman he met in a bar by showing her pictures he had taken of the victims and boasting about how he was at the scene of the accident. “It says so in their records.
Vanessa further alleges that a Los Angeles County fire official shared images from the crash site with off-duty firefighters and their wives and girlfriends during an awards ceremony at a Hilton hotel in February 2020. Vanessa claims the officer received the pictures from colleagues and shared them with the group.
The lawyers working for the district argue that the complaint is unfounded because photos have never been made available to the public. “It cannot be argued that the photos in question were ever published in the media, uploaded to the internet or otherwise made available to the public. The plaintiff, Vanessa Bryant, claims she “never looked at photos of her family members taken by the county, according to attorneys representing the county.”
Deputy Cruz was a novice at the time of the tragic incident, and District Attorney Mira Hashmall mentioned in her opening statement that she opposed the defendant’s position that he was sorry for his behavior. She was certain that the county’s public broadcast of illegal images did not constitute a violation of the Bryant family’s constitutional rights, and she was satisfied because of her certainty.
“The district government has not ceased to extend its heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of this terrible tragedy. Additionally, for the past two and a half years, the county has worked tirelessly to ensure its site images of the collision were never released to the public. The evidence shows that this was never the case. And It’s Proven Truth, Not Hypothesis “In a statement distributed to Rolling Stone, Hashmall, who is a partner at law firm Miller Barondess, said the following.
“Accountability is at the heart of this matter. We will demonstrate to you that county officials took photos and widely distributed them. “On Wednesday, August 10, Li delivered his opening speech to the jury. Due to the fact that the images were shared with such a large number of people in so many different ways, it is difficult to rule out that there will be a leak in the future.
According to what Li said, “Mrs. Bryant and Mr. Chester face the risk, worry, fear and horror that they may have to relive the deaths of their family members every day in the most agonizing way since the District did what it did.”