Kobe Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, on Wednesday posted a picture of a lawsuit filed against Los Angeles County authorities and outed the names of four deputies accused of sharing photographs of the top basketball player’s helicopter crash site.
Vanessa Bryant uploaded a screengrab of the suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court Central District of California, Western Division, and revealed the defendants, including the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and deputies Joey Cruz, Rafael Mejia, Michael Russell, and Raul Versales.
The litigation seeks a jury trial and accuses the county employees of negligence and invasion of privacy.
Bryant’s widow posted several other excerpts of the lawsuit, including allegations that responding deputies “used personal cellphones to take and share gratuitous photographs of the dead children, parents and coaches.” The text also suggests law enforcement circulated the images between one another using apps even after Sheriff Alex Villanueva assured the Bryant family that the crash site would be secure.
Mejia allegedly distributed the graphic photos to at least two other department personnel, including Cruz, who then shared them with members of the public and boasted about the images in a bar. Russell eventually obtained the pictures and sent them to a friend with whom he played video games, and Versales sent them to a detective, according to the suit.
The litigation alleges Villaneuva promised public disclosure on the results of the internal investigation into the photos but has not yet delivered. It adds that the department “failed to take basic steps to ensure all copies of the improper photos are tracked down and sequestered.”
Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were killed in a private helicopter crash in late January 2020 near Calabasas, California. Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli; his wife, Keri, and their daughter, Alyssa; Christina Mauser, who helped Bryant coach his daughter’s basketball team; and Sarah Chester and her daughter, Payton, as well as the pilot, Ara Zobayan, were killed on impact.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
A February 2021 crash investigation concluded Zobayan got disoriented in the clouds before the chopper went down. Flying into the clouds in the manner he did was not allowed per flight regulations, and authorities found no drugs or alcohol in his system after an autopsy.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
