Vanessa Bryant wants more time to pursue expanded case over grisly crash photos

The widow of Kobe Bryant wants to punish public safety workers who shared photos of her deceased husband and daughter after they perished in a helicopter crash last year and has discovered new information that broadens the scope of her case, according to a court filing this week from her attorneys.

Vanessa Bryant is suing the county of Los Angeles for negligence and invasion of privacy, accusing county sheriff’s and fire department employees of improperly sharing photos of the dead from the scene of the crash in January 2020.

After learning new information from the discovery process of her lawsuit, her attorneys stated that the misconduct by these public safety workers “is both more expansive and more egregious than (Bryant) originally understood.” Because of that, they are asking the court for more time to gather information and have requested moving the discovery cutoff from August to February, with a trial date moved to April.

“Mrs. Bryant has since learned that the number of LASD and (L.A. County Fire Department) employees who took, shared, and/or possessed improper photos of the accident scene is actually eighteen (and counting) and that sixty-six County employees have relevant knowledge of the misconduct,” said the filing submitted in federal court.

The widow of the basketball legend already has named four sheriff’s deputies in her lawsuit and could add more defendants to her suit, which was initially filed last year. Her husband and daughter were among nine who died in the accident. Her suit seeks punitive damages against the deputy defendants in an amount appropriate to “punish the them and make an example of the them to the community.”

Her new court filing notes that the county decided to discharge two firefighters involved with the photo sharing and suspended a third, according to internal reports obtained by her attorneys.

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Among many other witnesses, Bryant seeks to take the deposition testimony of L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who told deputies that if they “came clean” and deleted the photos, they would not face any discipline, according to her suit. This came after a private citizen emailed a complaint to the Sheriff’s Department that a deputy was showing photographs of the crash site at a bar in Norwalk two days after the accident.

But a sheriff’s captain had doubts about the order to delete evidence, according to the court filing. And now Bryant’s attorneys want more time to substantiate Bryant’s allegation that Villanueva’s actions constitute evidence spoliation instead of an attempt to keep the photos out of public circulation.

“The Captain halted the order to delete the photos and called his supervisor to express concern that the Sheriff’s order might constitute an instruction to destroy evidence of a violation of federal law, reminding the supervisor that the 'last time our deputies got instructions from our executives’ of a similar nature, 'they were arrested and tried for crimes,' " said a filing signed by Luis Li, an attorney for Bryant, citing internal reports.

Bryant's attorneys stated that information recently adduced in discovery about misconduct by Fire Department personnel has “broadened the scope of this case.”

“According to the reports and letters, two Fire Department employees took photos of victims’ remains at the crash site that 'served no business necessity' and instead 'only served to appeal to baser instincts and desires for what amounted to visual gossip,' ” said a written declaration filed Monday by another attorney for Bryant, Craig Lavoie. “One of the employees, a safety officer who was at the site solely to monitor safety procedures, was observed taking graphic photos focused on the victims’ remains. Both of the employees who took photos of remains sent them to a third Fire Department employee who was on site to assist with press briefings and to respond to inquiries from the media.”

Lavoie also stated that a civilian witness submitted a complaint to the Los Angeles County Fire Department about an employee who shared such photos with “off-duty firefighters and their wives and girlfriends while socializing amongst a group of 10 people at an awards ceremony at a Hilton hotel in February 2020.”

The county has said the photos were not publicly disseminated and that there is no legal basis for suing the defendants. Two other families that lost loved ones in the crash have filed similar lawsuits.

“The County does not condone this showing of accident site photographs and has taken corrective personnel actions accordingly,” the county said in a filed response to her lawsuit. “That does not mean, however, that Plaintiff has viable legal claims.”

Her attorneys say the county has dragged its feet on producing requested information and that Bryant’s legal team needs more time to help make up for it. It wasn’t until late March this year, Lavoie said, that they received surveillance footage from the bar where a sheriff’s deputy, Joey Cruz, allegedly shared photos.

“The surveillance footage shows Cruz smiling as he displayed his phone not only to a bartender, but also to a patron seated next to him at the bar,” Lavoie stated. “The patron seated next to Cruz and other witnesses shown in the surveillance footage have not yet been identified.”

Bryant’s attorneys indicated they want to take the deposition testimony of this bar patron “if he can be found,” along with many others, including “the group of 10 firefighters and significant others who were present when an (L.A. County Fire Department) employee displayed photos of the victims’ remains at an awards show.”

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. E-mail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kobe Bryant's widow seeks more time to pursue expanded photos case