On Wednesday, a U.S. District Court just over a mile from where Kobe Bryant played for the Los Angeles Lakers will hear an invasion of privacy trial against the Los Angeles County sheriff’s and fire departments, per ESPN.
Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow, claims the deputies who took the photos at the scene of the incident on January 26, 2020, did not do so for investigative purposes and instead gave them to the firefighters who were at the scene. It is alleged in the lawsuit that a deputy showed the images to bar patrons and that a firefighter showed the photos to off-duty coworkers.
Vanessa Bryant is seeking unspecified monetary damages amounting to millions.
According to the lawsuit: “Mrs. Bryant feels ill at the thought that sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, and members of the public have gawked at gratuitous images of her deceased husband and child. She lives in fear that she or her children will one day confront horrific images of their loved ones online.”
Fog caused a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and five other parents and players to crash into the Calabasas Hills west of Los Angeles on the way to a girls’ basketball tournament in January of 2020. Federal investigators concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error.
Vanessa has also sued the helicopter charter company, as well as the deceased pilot’s estate.
