Kobe Bryant’s widow on Wednesday named four sheriff deputies who allegedly participated in “morbid gossip” and shared horrible images of her husband’s remains taken at the scene of her death.
Vanessa Bryant had filed an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Los Angeles County and the sheriff’s department in September, but the deputies’ names were protected.
That was before a federal judge ruled last week that accused deputies “are legitimately concerned about the possibility of finding vitrioles and attacks on social media”, but that “such concerns in themselves are not enough to overcome the strong public interest in access “.
US District Judge John F. Walter’s decision opened the door for Vanessa Bryant, in new lawsuits on Wednesday, to appoint MPs Joey Cruz, Rafael Mejia, Michael Russell and Raul Versales, accusing them of taking or distributing photos of bodies of January 26 fatal helicopter accident in Calabasas.
The dissemination of the images was so widespread within the sheriff’s department that a detective who received some of the photos told investigators that he does not remember who gave them to him, the suit said.
“As an indication of how casually the photos were shared within the department, the detective was unable to even identify the name of the deputy who sent the photos to him during an interview with the department’s investigators,” according to the complaint. This detective was not named in the lawsuit.
The accident killed Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, six other passengers and the pilot.
For now, Vanessa Bryant is naming the four deputies who allegedly played a role in publicizing the photos.
- Mejia was stationed at a command post in the Los Virgenes water district when he “took several photos of the Bryants’ remains and stored them on his personal cell phone” before “sharing them with at least two individuals without any legitimate governmental purpose, “according to the action.
- Cruz, a trainee deputy that day, received images of Mejia before sharing them with his family and Russell, the suit said. Then, on January 28, Cruz was a client of the Baja California Bar and Grill in Norwalk, California, where “he boasted of having worked at the accident site” and displayed pictures “to a fellow barman and to the bartender’s restaurant, according to the process. He’s seen on the bar’s security camera zooming in and out while showing the images to the bartender, ”the process said.
- Two days after the accident, Russell “shared the photos with a personal friend with whom Russell plays video games every night,” according to the civil suit.
- Versales reportedly sent photos to Mejia and the detective who couldn’t remember who shared them with him, the suit said.
All four deputies, as soon as they heard of an internal investigation into the photos, erased the images from their phones to hinder investigators, Bryant’s widow claims in the lawsuit.
Mejia reportedly told investigators that “curiosity won [them]”And that this curiosity was“ in [their] nature ”as deputies, said the civil complaint.
Officials from the sheriff’s department and the union representing deputies were not available for comment on Thursday morning.
But shortly after Vanessa Bryant nominated the accused individual deputies, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a statement on Wednesday night: “We will refrain from judging this case in the media and wait for the appropriate place. Our hearts are at families affected by this tragedy. “
Vanessa Bryant also accused LA County firefighters of sharing footage of the accident scene, but no individuals within that department were identified.
