A former fire captain who retired due to 'severe trauma' from helicopter crash site does not want to testify at Vanessa Bryant trial. Bryant's attorneys say he took crash site photos and was disciplined for 'visual gossip' before he left.
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- Lawyers for a former fire captain accused of taking Kobe Bryant crash site photos don't want him to testify.
- In recent filings, they said he has suffered 'severe trauma' from the crash and retired early.
- Bryant's team wants to include a disciplinary letter, which her attorneys allege reprimanded him for taking crash site photos.
Lawyers representing a former Los Angeles County Fire Department captain in the case revolving around photos taken at Kobe and Gianna Bryant's helicopter crash site do not want him to testify during an upcoming trial, citing the "severe trauma" he endured from witnessing the crash site, according to court documents.
In new filings, attorneys for the former safety officer Brian Jordan have asked the court to preclude him from having to testify, claiming that he "will suffer emotional harm if he is forced to testify at trial," adding that the crash "has rendered him disabled and required his retirement."
On January 26, 2020, a helicopter transporting Bryant, the couple's 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, as well baseball coach John Altobelli and his family crashed near Malibu as they were heading to a girls basketball game. All nine aboard, including pilot Ara Zobayan, died in the crash.
Jordan's attorneys added that parties could play his deposition, taken in October 2021, at the trial but that he shouldn't testify in part because he is not a direct party in the case.
"The gruesome nature of the crash site, much like a battleground, including dead bodies and body parts, left Captain Jordan indelibly damaged," his attorneys wrote. "Any attempts to remember what occurred that day causes Captain Jordan further trauma, such that two separate health care professionals have opined that he should not be questioned or deposed at this time regarding the horrific events he observed."
In September 2020, Bryant sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the county's fire department, the county as a whole, and eight officers in the wake of reports that first responders took and shared photos of the January 2020 crash site.
"I also feel extreme sadness and anger knowing that photos of my husband's and daughter's bodies were laughed about while shown at a bar and an awards banquet," Bryant wrote in a December 2021 declaration, adding that she lives in fear of the photos surfacing online.
Jordan retired early, shortly after the crash, citing the trauma he experienced from the scene while Bryant's attorneys claimed in past filings he was sent an intent-to-discharge letter related to the photos but was not formally discharged.
In October, US Magistrate Judge Charles Eick ruled that Bryant's team could access Jordan's phone records, which his legal team said was "vengeance." Bryant's team also wants to include disciplinary letters that Jordan and others were sent after being accused of taking and sharing photos at the crash site and wants Jordan to testify.
According to court documents, the intent-to-discharge letters sent by Deputy Fire Chief William McCloud to Jordan and others said that staff taking photos "of the fuselage and human remains at the [site] did not further the [Fire] Department's mission" and "had no intel value or legitimate business purpose."
McCloud allegedly added that taking the photos "only served to appeal to baser instincts and desires for what amounted to visual gossip."
"The exhibits reflect steps taken by LASD and LACFD to make sure the conduct complained of by Plaintiff does not happen again," attorneys for Los Angeles County said in February, opposing the introduction of the letters.
Attorneys for Bryant and Jordan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.