The names of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies who allegedly shared photos of human remains in the helicopter crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter cannot be kept secret, a federal judge ruled.
U.S. District Court Judge John F. Walter, who is overseeing a lawsuit filed by Bryant’s widow against the sheriff’s department, decided on Monday that the public is interested in whether the agencies responsible for investigating and judge complaints of misconduct acted appropriately and wisely.
“While the Court recognizes that this case has been the subject of public scrutiny and media attention and that the Vice-Defendants are legitimately concerned that they will encounter vitrioles and social media attacks, such concerns alone are not sufficient to overcome the force of public interest in access, “said the sentence.
Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow, sued Los Angeles County and the sheriff’s department in September, accusing county officials of “displaying” photos of the remains of her husband and teenage daughter. MPs reportedly shared the photos among themselves and with others for no law enforcement purpose, the suit said.
Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, died along with seven other people when their helicopter crashed en route to a youth basketball tournament in Thousand Oaks, California, on January 29, 2020.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement on Tuesday that the sheriff was “committed to transparency and public safety while balancing the security of our Department’s employees.”
He added that he was aware of the judge’s decision on Monday and intended to comply with the court order.
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She previously acknowledged that early respondents, including deputies and officials from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, took and shared photos of the victims’ remains at the scene of the accident.
Villanueva said in media interviews that he ordered all the photos to be destroyed. The department also said that, shortly after the accident, Los Angeles sheriff Alex Villanueva sponsored legislation that now makes it a crime for public security personnel to take and share unofficial photos “of this nature”.
It was not immediately clear whether the names of Los Angeles County Fire Department officials accused of misconduct would also be released.
In an Instagram post in February, Bryant publicly asked the sheriff’s department to disclose the names of deputies who allegedly were caught sharing the photos. She said that writing or hiding names from the public created a double standard of accountability.
“They want their names to be excluded from the public,” she posted. “Anyone else facing these charges would be unprotected, appointed and made public.”
In Monday’s decision, Walter said that one of the county’s arguments for trying to keep deputies’ names secret seemed to contradict the sheriff’s statements that the photos were destroyed.
County attorneys said they were concerned that someone might break into one of the deputies’ private social networks or internet accounts and obtain copies of the photos.
“The defendants ‘concern that hackers might try to seek and gain access to Members’ individual devices to locate any photographs and publish them is totally inconsistent with their position that such photographs no longer exist,” said the judge.
After Monday’s decision, Bryant thanked Walter and attorney Luis Li in a new Instagram post.
Citing Li’s comment to the Los Angeles Times, she wrote: “Transparency promotes accountability. We look forward to bringing Ms. Bryant’s case to an open court.”
