Translated From: Kobe Bryant’s family’s dramatic legal battle to prevent …
Discovered on: 2021-12-08 15:02:48
Vanessa Bryant, the widow of former basketball player Kobe Bryant, in a file photo. EFE / Etienne Laurent
Next January 26 will be two years of the tragic day in which Kobe Bryant lost his life along with his daughter Gianna and the other seven crew members who were in their private Sikorsky S-76 helicopter when the aircraft collapsed over the city of Calabasas , located in Los Angeles County, California. After the accident a fire broke out and no one on board survived.
Beyond the astonishment that the death of an NBA legend, five times champion with the Los Angeles Lakers, caused for his wife and the whole family, Vanessa Bryant took the lead in the investigation to find out what happened with the fall of the helicopter and about the attitude of the police officers who approached the scene of the accident.
Vanessa sued Los Angeles County for invasion of privacy and also charged sheriff’s officers and firefighters with taking and sharing photos of the human remains of her husband and daughter. According to comments in the judicial file that were released by The Washington Post newspaper, the Kobe couple mentioned that they suffered “mockery of people on the networks” threatening to make these images viral or “publishing false images of my husband’s body.”
These statements were produced in response to the LA County’s motion to court to dismiss the case against the officers who approached the place where the aircraft collapsed.
Vanessa with Michael Jordan at the ceremony in which Kobe was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame (NBA)
“These policemen and firefighters took the worst that ever happened to me, the worst that can happen to any mother or spouse, and they made it worse,” Vanessa said in the file. “I will never be able to shake off the anguish of knowing that the officers who are supposed to keep us safe treated Kobe and Gianna with such cruel disrespect. For the rest of my life, one of two things will happen: Either the close-up photos of my husband and daughter’s bodies will go viral online, or I will continue to live in fear of that happening. Since I saw the photo, I have been tormented by thoughts about who took it and if it represents my husband, ”added Gianna’s mother.
According to the lawsuit, at least eight officers took unauthorized photos in the accident area and then distributed them to colleagues, family members and some strangers on the same day that Kobe was killed. “They took out their cell phones and took photos of the dead children, parents and coaches,” says Vanessa’s request.
The document, which was presented by lawyer Luis Li, indicates that “close-up photographs of the remains of Gianna and Kobe were passed through at least 28 devices and by at least a dozen firefighters.” The report continued as follows: “The free exchange continued over the next few days and weeks and included such outrageous conduct as flaunting photos in a bar while mocking the dismemberment and showing photos of cocktails at an awards gala . An officer laughed as he shared the photos; another described the remains of the accident victims as ‘hamburgers’ and ‘piles of meat.’
In the investigation, the Los Angeles County reported that it ordered the removal of the photos and indicated that they were not published on the internet or disseminated publicly according to the standard required by law in cases such as the accident suffered by the former NBA player and the other crew members.
Kobe and Vanessa with their daughters (Lumeimages / Shutterstock)
“It infuriates me that the people I trusted to protect the dignity of my husband and daughter abused their positions to obtain memories of their deaths, as if possessing photographs of their remains somehow made them special,” Vanessa said in the brief that he presented on Monday, December 6.
“I feel great sadness and anger to learn that the photos of the bodies of my husband and daughter were laughed at as they were displayed in a bar and at an awards banquet,” the lawsuit concluded.
It should be remembered that on October 12, Vanessa testified in court and gave details of how she found out about the accident in which her husband and one of her daughters died. “I was clinging to my phone, because obviously I was trying to call my husband, and all these notifications started popping up on my phone, saying ‘RIP Kobe. RIP Kobe. RIP Kobe, ‘”she revealed in shock.
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The shocking story of Kobe Bryant’s wife: how he learned of the death of the NBA star and his daughter They revealed what was the cause of the fall of the helicopter where Kobe Bryant was traveling and that caused the death of nine people
