Just last week, the camp of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant scored a huge win in their lawsuit against LA County over the leaked photos of Kobe's helicopter crash site. The presiding judge rejected the county's demand for a psychiatric exam for Kobe's widow, Vanessa Bryant, as the county looked to discredit the entire lawsuit.
The case has no signs of slowing down and right now, Vanessa has hurled more accusations at LA County. This time around, Bryant's camp is alleging that the county destroyed evidence of the crash site as part of a “cover-up” scheme.
Moments after the horrific crash, Vanessa requested from LA County Sherriff Alex Villanueva that he make sure that no photos of the crash site were taken. The Sherriff agreed to Mrs. Bryant's request, which resulted in Villanueva ordering employees of the county to delete all photos they had previously taken.
According to Bryant's lawyers, however, the county had a “legal obligation” to preserve any and all evidence from the crash site. To make matters worse, photos of the crash were still leaked to the public. Vanessa Bryant alleges that it was the county's employees who were responsible for the same.
Unsurprisingly, LA County is denying such claims. They are also saying that they deleted the photos out of Vanessa's own request:
“Sheriff Villanueva was keeping his promise to Bryant by making sure no photos got out,” the county said in a court document filed Monday (h/t Brent Schotenboer of USA TODAY). “The deputies, on and before January 30, 2020, deleted the photos from their phones — months before this dispute. Within two days, LASD interviewed 28 deputies, reserve deputies, sergeants, and civilian volunteers. The department determined that all personnel who had taken, shared, or received crash site photos had, in fact, deleted them. No one had sent a photo to anyone outside LASD.”
Bryant's camp fired back by saying that this was a clear misstep on the county's end as they failed to go through the proper investigation process for the case in question:
“By destroying evidence instead of preserving it to conduct a proper investigation, Defendants have prevented Plaintiffs from discovering how many other people saw graphic photos of their loved ones’ dead bodies,” said the filing submitted by Bryant’s attorney, Jennifer Bryant.
Vanessa Bryant's lawsuit against LA County seeks compensatory and punitive damages amid allegations of invasion of privacy. For what it's worth, two out of the four families that filed lawsuits against the country have already made an out-of-court settlement. Reports state that the Mauser and Altobelli families have already reached a settlement with LA County amounting to a whopping $1.25 million per family.
For her part, however, it is clear that this is just more than just about money for Vanessa. Kobe Bryant's widow is determined to “punish the deputy defendants and make an example of them to the community.” Needless to say, this already long and drawn-out court battle doesn't look like it's going to come to a conclusion in the near future.
Follow Us
Subscribe