SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – More details are emerging about the sharing of graphic photos from the 2020 helicopter crash that killed Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.
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According to court testimony, photos taken at the scene were shared by an LA Sheriff's Deputy at a bar just two days after the crash. The photos were also shared by an LA County firefighter during the cocktail hour at an awards ceremony a month after the crash.
The revelations were made during a trial for a federal civil lawsuit filed by the NBA star's widow, Vanessa Bryant, who claims that photos from the crash were shared by county fire and sheriff’s department employees in settings irrelevant to the investigation, including at a bar. The photos contained close-up images of the remains of Kobe Bryant and his daughter.
One witness testified that he was working as a bartender on January 28 when LA Sheriff's Deputy Joey Cruz, then a 4-month trainee, showed him photos taken at the crash site two days earlier, according to Business Insider.
The bartender testified that he was aware the photos were of Kobe Bryant, but he was not certain if other victims were pictured because "they were just parts," Insider reported. Surveillance video showed the bartender talking with several other customers after viewing the photos and making gestures to his head, neck and torso in what Bryant's attorneys have described as "pantomiming dismemberment." One of those customers was so disturbed, they filed a citizen complaint with the sheriff's department.
Another witness testified that LA Fire Captain Tony Imbrenda shared the photos, which depicted severed limbs and deceased children, during a cocktail hour at the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California’s Golden Mike awards in February 2020, CNN reported. The witness, a firefighter's wife, said several people were huddled around the captain when one firefighter broke away from the group, saying, "I can’t believe I just looked at Kobe's burnt up body, and now I'm about to eat."
The witness also testified that Imbrenda's wife was "excited" and trying to get others at the ceremony to look at the photos, which the captain was showing off "like a party trick," CNN reported. About two weeks after the party, she filed a complaint with the department.
Attorneys allege that the graphic photos were passed around to at least 28 devices maintained by sheriff’s department personnel and by at least a dozen firefighters in the hours after the crash.
The NBA legend's widow is seeking millions of dollars in damages for the severe emotional distress. Vanessa Bryant has said she was incensed "that the people I trusted to protect the dignity of my husband and daughter abused their positions to obtain souvenirs of their deaths, as though possessing pictures of their remains somehow makes them special. I imagine Kobe watching over what occurred at that crash scene, and I am overcome with anger and emotion."
County attorneys sought to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that Bryant's claim of emotional distress caused by the alleged sharing of the cellphone photos is based on "hypothetical harm" and lacked standing because the images were never publicly circulated and she never saw them.
A judge disagreed, sending the case to trial.
The county has stated that the photos no longer exist.
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