Vanessa Bryant seeks to name deputies accused of taking souvenir pics at Kobe Bryant crash site
Vanessa Bryant is fighting to publicly name the Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies accused of taking unauthorized photos at the site of Kobe Bryant’s deadly helicopter crash last year.
In an Instagram story over the weekend, the NBA star’s widow slammed the department for trying to redact the names of the accused deputies amid a lawsuit playing out in federal court.
“They want their names to be exempt from the public,” she wrote. “Anyone else facing these allegations would be unprotected, named and released to the public.”
In a legal filing last week, her lawyers argued “there is no policy rationale that supports (the deputies) proceeding under a pseudonym.”
“Defendants fail to offer a single case in which a police officer being sued for civil rights violations has been allowed to proceed anonymously,” they claimed.
For their part, the sheriff’s department and Los Angeles County want to seal the names because the accused deputies allegedly “did not distribute any photographs outside of LASD.”
“Distribution of crash site photographs within LASD does not, and could not, violate the law,” county lawyers wrote in the joint filing.
“If plaintiff publishes their names, the addresses and other PII of these public employees are just a click away on the internet. This concern is heightened due to the publicly charged nature of this case,” they argued.
A judge did not immediately issue a ruling on the sealing spat.
Vanessa filed the underlying complaint last September, claiming “no fewer than eight sheriff’s deputies at the crash site pulled out their personal cell phones and snapped photos of the dead children, parents and coaches” on Jan. 26, 2020, the day the helicopter crashed in dense fog in Calabasas, Calif.
The horrific crash killed the Lakers legend, 41, the couple’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.
Federal officials investigating the crash determined last month that it was caused pilot error likely linked to “self-induced pressure” to please a celebrity client.
The top brass of the National Transportation Safety Board said pilot Ara Zobayan ignored his training when he intentionally flew into blinding clouds at high speed, allowing himself to become susceptible to spatial disorientation phenomena known as “the leans” and “somatogravic illusion.”
