Kobe Bryant’s widow Vanessa Bryant has sued the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office after she claims several deputies have shared graphic photos of the helicopter crash site that claimed the lives of not only the NBA All-Star but also the couple’s daughter and seven other people.
Vanessa Bryant shared images of the lawsuit on her Instagram account after it was amended to include the names of the three deputies.
A federal judge last week ruled against the county’s attorneys who had claimed the names should be kept out of the public eye because it would make the deputies’ information, including their address, accessible and make them targets of hackers, The Associated Press reported
She is suing Los Angeles County, the sheriff’s department and the fire department, along with deputies Joey Cruz, Rafael Mejia, Michael Russell and Raul Versales.
The lawsuit alleges that one of the deputies shared the photos with a bartender and the other two accused passed around “gratuitous photos of the dead children, parents and coaches,” the AP reported.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva posted to Twitter that his department “will refrain from trying this case in the media,” ESPN reported.
We will refrain from trying this case in the media and will wait for the appropriate venue. Our hearts go out to all the families affected by this tragedy.
— Alex Villanueva (@LACoSheriff) March 18, 2021
The complaint says Mejia had “multiple photographs of the Bryants’ remains” taken by the fire department at the scene stored on his cellphone. After obtaining them, the suit contends that Mejia left a command post to talk to a female deputy on traffic control, telling her that he had photos of the scene and then sent them to her phone.
The suit claims Mejia also sent them to Cruz who then shared them with people “without any legitimate governmental purpose, including members of the public,” the AP reported. Cruz is also accused of showing the photos to his niece and made a crude remark about the victims’ remains.
The suit claims that Cruz went to a local bar and showed the photos of the remains to a patron and the bartender, ESPN reported. The bar’s security camera captured Cruz zooming in on the photos while showing the bartender, who eventually told the business’ employees that he had seen Kobe Bryant’s body and described the crash in graphic detail, City News Service reported.
The suit alleges that the deputies eventually deleted the photos after learning about the suit, stating they “negligently and/or willfully destroyed evidence” when they deleted the images.
Bryant is suing for negligence and invasion of privacy and is seeking damages, the AP reported.
Kobe Bryant was killed on Jan. 26, 2020, when his helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California, ESPN reported. There were no survivors.
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