Vanessa Bryant Sues LA County For Sharing Images From Kobe Bryant Crash

Vanessa Bryant said that she was only beginning to grieve the death of her husband, basketball star Kobe Bryant, and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna when she was confronted with the new tragedy of finding that sheriff's deputies and firefighters had snapped and shared images of their bodies at the site of the helicopter accident that killed them.

On Friday, she testified with tears, "I felt like I wanted to run, run down the block and scream. It was like the feeling of wanting to run down a pier and jump into the water. The problem is I can't escape. I can't escape my body."

Vanessa Bryant Testimony

Bryant testified for three hours in a Los Angeles federal court during her lawsuit against LA County for invasion of privacy involving the images. Bryant claimed that she had struggled to attend both public and private memorials for her loved ones and seven other people who were killed on January 26, 2020 and that she had finally felt ready to start grieving about a month later.

She was with friends and her surviving daughters, and she was cuddling her 7-month-old baby when she got a call about a Los Angeles Times piece regarding crash-site images.

"I bolted out of the house and around to the side so my girls wouldn't see," she said. "I was blindsided again, devastated, hurt. I trusted them. I trusted them not to do these things."

Evidence presented at trial revealed that firefighters discussed pictures of Bryant's body with one another at an awards ceremony and that a sheriff's deputy showed a bartender a picture of Bryant's body while they were both drinking. This caused another person drinking nearby to file a formal complaint.

Others gave them to their spouses. An attorney representing the county stated that the images were taken solely to assess the crash site shortly after it occurred and that when LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva discovered they were being shared, he asked that they immediately be deleted.

Although no photos have emerged publicly, Vanessa Bryant said that she is constantly concerned that some might emerge in the future. "I live in fear every day of being on social media and these popping up," she claimed. "I live in fear of my daughters being on social media and these popping up."

She says she sleeps next to her 3-year-old and her 5-year-old at night but sometimes experiences panic attacks.

Bryant stated during cross-examination by J. Mira Hashmall, the lawyer for LA County at the trial, that she had not gotten any medical diagnosis of panic attacks or any mental health problem, nor had she taken any prescriptions for them.

She claimed that following the crash, she spoke with a therapist for roughly 18 months, but not beyond that. "I feel like sometimes it helps," Vanessa said, "but sometimes it's completely draining."

Hashmall spent the majority of her 90-minute cross-examination going over the professional duties Bryant currently holds, such as serving as president of her husband's multimedia company, Granity Studios, supervising the release of one book he wrote and helping to finish and publish another, leading the foundation founded for Kobe and Gianna, and developing numerous other businesses.

Hashmall speculated that Bryant's ability to deal with everything indicated that she was operating effectively and was not incapacitated by fear and anxiety. Hashmall even said, "It sounds like on top of everything else you're juggling a business empire." Bryant, who remained calm and composed throughout cross-examination, stated, "For me, it's a labour of love."

While being questioned by her attorney Luis Li, who asked her to describe her life with her "proud girl-dad" spouse and their daughters, she frequently sobbed and also occasionally laughed. She said, "He was just such a beautiful and devoted father." 

Bryant detailed the day of the incident, her pain, and her desperation in attempting to determine whether her husband and daughter were still alive after hearing from an assistant that there were five survivors.

She described Sheriff Villanueva entering a room where she was waiting at the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station and verifying that her husband and daughter had been dead. He enquired as to whether there was anything he could do to help her.

"I told him if you can't bring my babies back, then please secure the area," Bryant said. "I'm concerned about paparazzi." To which, Li asked, "Did the sheriff tell you one of his deputies had already gone to the hill to take close-up pictures of crash victims?" Bryant replied, "No." 

During cross-examination, Hashmall claimed that the deputy, Doug Johnson, who trekked over difficult terrain into the hills in northern Los Angeles County to the crash site and took the photographs that were ultimately shared, was merely attempting to utilise them to analyse the situation. "You can understand why he would want the same information you did," Hashmall said.

Bryant replied, "I don't think you need to take close-up photos of people to determine how many people are on an aircraft. I think he could have just counted."

Following her testimony on the eighth day of the trial, Bryant's side decided to rest its case.

Suggested Reading: Vanessa Bryant Wins Kobe Bryant’s Crash Site Photo-Sharing Lawsuit