Kobe Bryant’s widow on Wednesday named four sheriff’s deputies who allegedly took part in widespread ‘morbid gossip stories’ and shared gruesome images of her husband’s remains, taken at the scene of his death.
Vanessa Bryant had already filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County and the sheriff’s department in September, but the names of the deputies have been protected.
That was before a federal judge ruled last week that accused deputies “are legally concerned that they will experience attacks on vitriols and social media”, but that “such concerns in themselves are not sufficient to weigh the public’s strong interest in access not.”
The U.S. District Court Judge John F. Walter on Wednesday opened the door for Vanessa Bryant in new court documents to name the delegates Joey Cruz, Rafael Mejia, Michael Russell and Raul Versales and accuse them of taking photos of bodies from the Jan. or spread. 26 fatal crash helicopter crash in Calabasas.
The distribution of the images was so widespread in the sheriff’s department. A detective who received some of the photos told investigators he did not know who gave it to him.
” As an indication of how comfortably the photos were shared within the department, the detective could not even identify the name of the deputy who sent the photos to him during an interview with departmental investigators, ” the indictment states. That detective was not mentioned in the lawsuit.
In the crash, Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, six other passengers and the pilot were killed.
For now, Vanessa Bryant mentions the four deputies who allegedly played a role in the distribution of photos.
- Mejia was stationed at a commando post in the nearby Los Virgenes water district when he “obtained 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 government purpose. “according to the lawsuit.
- Cruz, a deputy student on that day, received images of Mejia before sharing them with his family and Russell. Then on January 28, he was a customer at the Baja California Bar and Grill in Norwalk, California, where he ‘boasted that he worked at the scene of the crash’ and ‘with a bar cartridge and the restaurant’ bartender, according to the suit. “He is seen on the bar’s security camera zooming in and out of the images while showing it to the bartender,” reads the lawsuit.
- Two days after the crash, Russell “shared the photos with a personal friend with whom Russell plays video games every night,” according to the civil action.
- Versales allegedly sent photos to Mejia and the detective who could not remember who shared images with him, the lawsuit said.
Once all four deputies found an internal investigation into the photos, they removed the images from their phones to obstruct investigators, Bryant’s widow in the case claims.
Mejia apparently told investigators that ‘curiosity got the best [them]”And that such curiosity” in [their] nature ”as delegates, the civil complaint said.
Officials at the sheriff and the union representing deputies could not be reached immediately for comment 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 hearing the case in the media and will wait in the appropriate place. Our hearts go out to all the families affected by this tragedy. ‘
Vanessa Bryant also accused LA county firefighters of sharing images of the crash scene.
