Live updates: Kobe Bryant's crash site photos were shown at a bar and gala following his death, witnesses testify. One sheriff's deputy said he has no regrets about the way he documented the gruesome scene.
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
- Vanessa Bryant's trial against LA County after the death of her husband Kobe Bryant resumed Friday.
- She's suing over allegations that graphic photos of the crash were shared by county officials.
- On Friday, a woman who lost family members in the crash said she saw an official sharing the photos.
(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Doug Johnson was among the first to respond to the crash site in January 2020.
He told the court that he had taken close to 25 photos of human remains at the scene.
Johnson confirmed to the court on Friday that he had no regrets about taking the photos, or about airdropping all of them to LACFD Captain Brian Jordan who Johnson met at the scene. He also airdropped the photos to another man on the scene who he presumed to be a fire official – someone who has not yet been identified in the process of litigation.
Friday's testimony exposed a worrisome blind spot in the County's handling of the crash: Officials aren't even entirely sure they can trace back every photo, and no staff phones were forensically searched in internal investigations.
Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images
A woman who lost two family members in the January 2020 helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna testified in court on Friday that weeks after the tragedy, she witnessed LA County fire officials sharing gruesome photos of the crash site at a gala.
Luella Weireter, an integral witness in Bryant's case, is intrinsically tied to the tragedy; she lost her cousin and in-law in the crash; later witnessed LA county fire officials sharing photos from the scene; and testified on Friday that she previously witnessed an LA sheriff's deputy snap a gruesome photo of a suicide victim in an unrelated matter when she worked as an EMT.
Weireter was one of two private citizens who filed complaints against LA County alleging that she saw two LA fire officials sharing graphic photos from the crash site at an awards ceremony less than a month after the tragedy.
Weireter testified that she heard one official say, "I can't believe I just looked at Kobe's burnt-up body and I'm about to eat."
AP Photo/Jessica Hill
A private citizen said he felt a "sense of betrayal" when a Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy showed grisly photos of Kobe Bryant's dead body to a bartender, who went table-to-table telling patrons and employees about what he had just seen.
Matt Sayles/AP Images
A top Los Angeles County coroner on Thursday testified in graphic detail about the state of Kobe Bryant's body following the 2020 helicopter crash.
Testimony from Capt. Emily Tauscher, the head of investigations at the LA County coroner's office, took center stage on the second day of the trial between Vanessa Bryant and Los Angeles County.
Tauscher painted a gruesome picture of the crash site, offering detailed insight into the grisly scene that would've been captured in the photos. She also discussed the photo practices of the coroner's office — describing a more ad-hoc approach to site photography in the sheriff's department's system that could've allowed photos to be taken and shared.
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Six months after the deadly helicopter crash, Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka and Vanessa Bryant took an all-terrain vehicle up the nearly 1,200-foot hill where Kobe and Gigi died.
"Part of her journey of grief and healing was that she wanted to touch the soil from where they went to heaven," Pelinka told the court on Wednesday of Vanessa's decision to visit the crash site. "We just knew that they were with us."
Pelinka's emotional testimony provided a window into Vanessa Bryant's emotional state after the crash, and how her distress was compounded after learning that illicit crash site photos were taken.
(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
In opening statements, county attorney Mira Hashmall said that first responders from various agencies documented the crash site per their agency policies and "put their lives on the line" to respond to the crash and put out a resulting bushfire.
Hashmall added in her opening statement that 18 different federal and state agencies responded to the crash scene, including the FBI – and claimed that media agencies were the only entities who publicly disseminated photos of the crash.
Hashmall said LASD Sheriff Alex Villanueva's deletion order to staff who took photos helped "contain" the spread of the photos amid "lapses in judgment" from County staff who sent photos to each other.
Vanessa Bryant said in her deposition that she learned of the crash via social media.
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The trial began on Wednesday with opening statements from LA County lawyers and Vanessa Bryant's legal team. The widow wore black and held back tears throughout the first day of the trial.
In September 2020, Vanessa 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 broken by the LA Times that first responders took and shared photos of the January 2020 crash site.
Her suit is seeking punitive damages from county defendants who are accused of taking and sharing crash site photos. Bryant is suing the county for negligence, emotional distress, and invasion of privacy claims as well as federal claims which relate to the constitutional right to the images of her deceased loved ones, and LA County agency practices that led to the alleged taking and dissemination of photos.