Vanessa Bryant, widow of basketball star Kobe Bryant, retraced her grief in court when she found out that Los Angeles County officials had privately shared photos of the remains of victims of the accident in which her husband and daughter died. The woman’s testimony is reported by New York Times. “I wanted to run off the block and scream, but I couldn’t escape. I could not run away, I could not escape my body ”, she explained in the classroom. Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna Maria, along with seven other people, are the victims of a helicopter crash caused by pilot error. Photos of those mangled bodiesdisplayed in non-professional settings, prompted Vanessa Bryant to sue Los Angeles County.
The process
Vanessa Bryant, crying, added that she lives in dread that photos appear on the Internet. “Once they are widespread, you can’t go back,” she stressed. And she explained that she suffered emotional stress knowing that personnel from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and the Fire Department took pictures at the scene and exchanged them, and how she ran away from home to find a place to cry and scream away. from her other three daughters when she learned of their existence. “I don’t want them to come across those images ever “, he repeated. The widow of the NBA star is suing Los Angeles County for $ 1 million in damages.
The trial for shock photos taken by LAPD after the helicopter crash in 2020 in which Koby Bryant, daughter Gianna and seven other people died. Vanessa Bryant, who started the lawsuit two years ago, believes one would have been committed with the shots violation of privacy as the agents would have shown the photos in contexts not related to an investigation, such as in a bar for example. Bryant’s lawyer said those photos were shared for “a laugh”. Vanessa herself was present at the opening of the trial, in tears according to the New York Post. For her part, Los Angeles County argues that “the mental and emotional wounds” were not caused by the photos but by the fatal accident itself. It is estimated that the process should take about two weeks. Among the members of the jury also a nun.
The fact
To tell it was the same widow of legend of world basketball in her deposition to Los Angeles County authorities, which she sued for photos taken at the crash site and then shared. In fact, Ms. Bryant was assured that the area of the accident would be closely monitored so that no one could take pictures. A unfulfilled promise, however, that exposed her to strong emotional stress: the photos were in fact disseminated online and ended up under the eyes of the woman several times. Hence the decision of the cause. The legal battle has now entered the heart and is taking place on request for a psychiatric report requested by the Los Angeles authorities against Vanessa.
Exams which the woman’s lawyers oppose calling them “cruelty”, as they explained during a hearing in recent days during which the widow testified by telling the worst day of her life, that January 26, 2020.
The news and the trauma
It was Sunday and she was at home with two of her children when around 11.30 in the morning a family assistant knocked on the door and informed her of the accident, however, specifying that there were five survivors. Vanessa asked if Kobe and Gianna were among them but her assistant replied that she didn’t know anything about it.
While trying to contact her husband started receiving notifications on mobile with ‘RIP Kobe’, rest in peace Kobe. Before the news was even officially communicated to her, Ms. Bryant ran to the airport in an attempt to get on a helicopter to take her to the crash site, but she could not because the weather conditions did not guarantee the safety of the flight.
Then she got into the car with a Lakers manager and reached the crash site: it was at that point that they officially informed her of the deaths of Kobe and Gianna, and she explicitly asked that no one take pictures. The widow then said that she took the clothes of her husband and daughter from the area: “If the clothes represent the condition of their bodies, I cannot imagine how someone could be so treacherous as to spread the photos as if they were animals on the road“.