Curiosity got the better of LA County firefighters involved in spread of graphic photos from Kobe Bryant helicopter crash, they testify: 'I wanted to see Kobe, to be honest.'

• Two LA Fire captains on Thursday testified in Vanessa Bryant's ongoing trial agaisnt the county.
• Captains Sky Cornell and Arlin Kahan are both implicated in the agency-wide spread of graphic photos from the scene.
• Some of the graphic photos taken and shared included human remains. 

Two Los Angeles firefighters implicated in the county-wide spread of gruesome photos taken at the site of a 2020 helicopter crash that killed nine people, including NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, acknowledged this week that their own curiosity about the high-profile tragedy was a driving factor in their getting involved.

Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain Sky Cornell and Captain Arlin Kahan took the stand on Thursday, kicking off the seventh day of the trial between Vanessa Bryant and Los Angeles County. Vanessa Bryant filed a lawsuit against the county and other defendants over allegations that LA sheriff's deputies and Los Angeles County Fire Department officials took and shared photos of the helicopter crash site in late January 2020.

Cornell was up first, describing his encounter with the graphic photos, some of which contained human remains. The captain testified that Tony Imbrenda, a former LACFD public information officer, shared the photos with him and others at the 2020 Golden Mike awards gala.

Cornell testified Thursday that he did not ask to see the photos, but Imbrenda eventually displayed three to five pictures from the crash site, none of which explicitly showed Kobe Bryant, but did include other remains.

Luella Weireter, a private citizen who lost family members in the crash and testified in the case last week, witnessed Imbrenda showing the photos to a group of county officials at the event, and later filed a complaint with the sheriff's department.

Plaintiff's attorneys on Thursday zeroed in on a comment Cornell previously made during an internal interview with the LACFD over the photos' spread.

"I wanted to see Kobe, to be honest," Cornell said at the time, exemplifying the reason that drove several sheriff's deputies and fire officials to share graphic photos from the scene.

On the stand this week, Cornell acknowledged that it was "poor language," but said there was a "curiosity with any large-scale event" to see the photos.

He maintained that the incident with the photos at the gala was an opportunity for "training," and said the group looked at the photos to observe the fuselage and Vehicle Identification number. Cornell also railed against the LACFD internal inquiry into the improper photos, calling it a "waste of time."

Imbrenda, he said, showed his colleagues the photos at the "wrong time, wrong event," but testified that he understood "why he did it."

Captain Kahan was next to take the stand. Kahan said he took 10 to 20 photos of the crash site on the day after the accident and then sent those photos to Imbrenda. Kahan's Thursday testimony helped establish the chain of how the photos spread.

At least five of the photos that Kahan took on January 27 were focused on human remains, according to testimony. The other pictures also included remains but further in the distance, with red flags marking them. One of the photos included a torso that was partially covered by a coroner's blanket, attorneys said.

Kahan testified that he took the photos unprompted in order to capture "the overall scene." He then sent the photos to Imbrenda because "he's the one who controls the photos," Kahan said.

He testified that "accident photos" help tell a story, and said the LACFD frequently uses them to help emergency medical personnel in hospitals. But an attorney for the plaintiffs shot back at Kahan, "You weren't even a first responder," suggesting it was unlikely the fire captain took the photos in order to help medical personnel since he arrived on the scene the day after the crash.