Los Angeles law enforcement has had a terrible reputation for decades now. Going back to the 1980s the LAPD and various other departments in the surrounding area have been embroiled in scandal that has compromised public trust in the worst possible ways. Not a whole lot has changed since then…
According to ESPN, Vanessa Bryant and her legal team laid out their case against the Los Angeles County deputies and fire department accusing them of taking photos of Kobe Bryant’s remains at the site of the horiffic helicopter crash that claimed nine lives.
Vanessa Bryant’s attorney Luis Li told jurors in his opening statement in U.S. District Court in her invasion of privacy trial against the county that the cellphone photos shot at the crash scene by a deputy and a fire captain were “visual gossip” viewed “for a laugh” and had no official purpose.
The county attorney J. Mira Hashmall tried to argue that these upstanding pillars of the community were simply taking site photos for official dut, however, Li burned that weak a** defense to the ground with little to no effort. Li played a video of an off-duty sheriff’s deputy showing the gruesome photos to a bartender like they were a rare piece of memorabilia. There was also evidence of firefighters showing off the photos while gathered together at banquet. Again, as if these death pictures were a trendy new toy that made them the coolest kids in school.
The county has already settled this type of lawsuit with two other victims’ families but Vanessa Bryant and Chris Chester, who lost his wife and daughter, refused to accept a settlement.
We hope they take everything. All of it.