Vanessa Bryant’s lawsuit against L.A. County – which is centered around first responders who allegedly circulated photos of her husband Kobe and daughter Gianna’s deadly 2020 helicopter crash site – faced several delays in the preliminary stages. Obviously, the early days of the pandemic postponed many court dates, this one included, and the mountain of initial evidence presented by both Vanessa’s legal team (who was scolded for sharing so much) and the defense later had to be parsed down. They’re finally in front of a jury now, though. The latest development in the trial is that a witness from the bartending industry addresses the claim that he laughed at the photos.
TMZ reports that Victor Gutierrez confirmed in court on August 12 that L.A. County Sherrif’s Deputy Joey Cruz offered to show him snaps of the crash site at the Baha Grill in Los Angeles where Gutierrez works. Apparently, he and other employees there, as well as some bar bystanders, viewed the horrific images which reportedly included ones of the nine victims’ remains. However, the bartender testified that the deputy’s actions weren’t malicious, in his view, but only to release some of the burden of what he saw.
The attorney for Kobe Bryant’s widow pushed back in their cross examination of the witness. They asked Victor Gutierrez if he found the photos funny. He denied it. However, surveillance video was presented in court to show Gutierrez apparently laughing at the time. He denied all the allegations and said that anyone finding humor in those photos would be. “psychotic.”
Vanessa Bryant is challenging the bar scenario in court because she claims that the county officials’ dissemination of crash site images violated her right of privacy with regard to images of family members who are deceased. Bryant’s emotional distress is further aggravated by the fact that she is not able to control the public dissemination of these gruesome photos via her online account.
The lawsuit is actually about the core of the case, which concerns the tampering with social media posts. A judge had already ruled in advance of the trial that messages Vanessa Bryant received online following the crash were inappropriate. “admittedly relevant as a taunt,”Potential evidence of emotional distress, and therefore, some were deemed inadmissible for the trial. Some, though, were deemed inadmissible for the trial due to Bryant receiving them before it became public knowledge that L.A. County responders had circulated anything – therefore, making them largely “hearsay”In this instance. However, the message threatened to “leak Kobe’s body”A post with an aerial view of the county and another are included in the evidence.
When the trial first kicked off on August 11, per the outlet, the plaintiff’s legal team (which now includes an expert from Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s trial) made opening statements that outlined in full the eight deputies who took personal pics of the deceased bodies. According to the responders, the photos were shared at an awards gala with a woman in a bar and then dispersed among their families. Consequently, Kobe Bryant’s wife was seen sobbing openly in court that day.
It’s only been two days so far in what’s expected to be a 10-day trial, but it’s clearly going to be emotional affair for those close to the former NBA legend, of whom was recently paid tribute to at the ESPY Awards by Klay Thompson. There will be more updates about the case soon.