KOBE BRYANT’S WIFE SUING LOS ANGELES COUNTY OVER CRASH SITE PHOTOS
After the death of Kobe Bryan and daughter Gianna, Wife Vanessa Bryant has been fighting ongoing legal suits since their deaths.
Following the fatal helicopter crash of legendary basketball player Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna, Vanessa sued the helicopter company for negligence and the pilot Ara Zobayan, who died in the accident.
She later filed a civil lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for negligence, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress after photos of the crash site surfaced the internet. Vanessa Bryant said she begged the Los Angeles County sheriff to make sure no one took photographs from the site. The sheriff confirmed with her that the area was secured.
Court filings show Los Angeles County requested Vanessa Bryant to take a psychiatric exam before the case went to trial. They would like to further assess whether the emotional distress suffered by Bryant and others was caused by the leak of the photos or the helicopter crash itself.
The photos were later leaked by county fire and sheriff’s department employees in settings irrelevant to the investigation, such as the bar.
“It does not take an expert — and it certainly does not take an involuntary eight-hour psychiatric examination — for a jury to assess the nature and extent of the emotional distress caused by Defendants’ misconduct,” attorneys for Bryant said.
The plaintiffs’ distress “are the feelings that any reasonable person would experience if the public officials entrusted to protect the dignity of their deceased family members snapped graphic photos of their loved ones’ remains, used the photos for cocktail-hour entertainment, and failed to contain and secure the photos.”
A hearing is set for November 5, and the trial will begin in February 2022.
The basketball star, father, and husband died at 41 on January 26, 2020, alongside his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, when the helicopter they were on crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, California. Kobe Bryant is survived by his wife Vanessa Bryant and their three other daughters, Natalia, Bianka and Capri.
