Kobe and Gianna Bryant
NBA star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter (photo, left) were killed in a helicopter crash.
Some of the first responders took cellphone pics of the crash scene. One of them, a sheriff’s deputy, would later testify that he “‘didn’t do anything wrong’ when he snapped 25 pictures at the site, some of which contained close-up images of body parts, and sent the pictures to others.” He said he took the pictures with his cell phone “to ‘document’ the crash scene at the request of a deputy at the command post.”
But those photos ended up doing more than documenting a fatal accident. “An institutional “culture of callousness” led Los Angeles County deputies and firefighters to shoot and share photos of the remains of Kobe Bryant and other victims” of the crash, NBC News reported here. They were passed around in a bar, among other places.
Bryant’s widow sued. At one point the county accused her of “harassing” the first responders (see story here). Her lawyer had “security video of an off-duty sheriff’s deputy drinking at a bar showing the photos to the bartender, who shakes his head in dismay. The lawyer then showed an image of the men laughing together later.” The photos also were passed around at a firefighters awards banquet. Ultimately, they were “spread to nearly 30 people.”
On Tuesday, February 28, 2023, Los Angeles County agreed to pay Mrs. Bryant $28.85 million for invasion of privacy and emotional distress (read story here).
Below: Investigators working the crash site
