Trial Over Kobe Bryant Crash Photos Gets Underway

The legal fight over graphic photos of NBA great Kobe Bryant by first responders in Calabasas, Calif., culminates with a trial that gets underway at a federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday. 

Vanessa Bryant said in a court filing that she lives in “fear that I and my daughters will one day be confronted online with the deputies’ or firefighters’ stash of photos” taken in the aftermath of the fatal helicopter crash that took the lives of her husband, daughter Gianna, and seven others in January 2020. 

Vanessa Bryant, who sued Los Angeles County in October 2020, seeks unspecified damages for violations of privacy. Bryant refused to settle the case as jury selection began Wednesday morning. 

According to the amended complaint, lawyers for Bryant alleged that at least 10 members of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department “obtained and possessed images of the victims’ remains on their personal cell phones without any legitimate reason for having them” within 48 hours of the crash.

“The gratuitous images also became a subject of gossip within the Department, as deputies shared them in settings that had nothing to do with investigating the accident,” the lawsuit stated.

“One deputy even showed off photos of the victims at a bar, identifying one of the individuals depicted as Kobe Bryant and bragging about how he had been at the crash site. Shocked and appalled, one of the bar patrons filed a written complaint with the sheriff’s department.”

L.A. County firefighters also possessed the photos, which were shared via text and AirDrop. Some firefighters shared the images amongst themselves during the Golden Mike Awards, which sparked a complaint to the L.A. County Fire Department’s internal affairs division from a wife of a firefighter who attended the news media awards show. 

“Given how many people had the photos, I am confident these were not the only times the photos were shown off,” Vanessa Bryant said in a court filing. 

The lawsuit states the photos had no investigative purpose.

Lawyers for L.A. County are expected to argue at trial that the loss of her husband and her daughter led to the emotional distress she detailed in the lawsuit, not the possible release of the photos.