Vanessa Bryant lost her husband, Kobe, and daughter, Gianna, in a helicopter accident on January 26, 2020.
That tragedy is unspeakable enough in its own right, but what she had to endure in the aftermath is next level.
According to a lawsuit filed by Vanessa and her legal representation against Los Angeles County, sheriff’s deputies and firefighters openly distributed graphic photos of the crash and its aftermath.
And it apparently wasn’t just one or two bad seeds.
Speaking to NBC Los Angeles, LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva stated that he ordered eight deputies to delete graphic photos of the helicopter crash.
“That was my No. 1 priority, was to make sure those photos no longer exist,” Villanueva said at the time. “We identified the deputies involved, they came to the station on their own and had admitted they had taken them and they had deleted them. And, we’re content that those involved did that.”
Vanessa would eventually go on to file a lawsuit over the matter citing emotional distress.
This week, a new update in that lawsuit came out.
“Lawyers representing Vanessa Bryant in her lawsuit against Los Angeles County won’t be allowed to show jurors taunting social media messages she received about Kobe Bryant’s death sent to her before it became public knowledge that sheriff’s deputies and firefighters had distributed graphic photos,” reported Law and Crime.
“They will, however, be allowed to present messages she received afterward, including one that threatened to ‘leak Kobe’s body’ and one that contained an aerial photo of the Jan. 26, 2020, helicopter crash that U.S. District Judge John F. Walter said can be inferred to be a county photo, one of several key rulings issued Friday ahead of next week’s trial.”
Hopefully this will expedite the proceedings in a way that allows Vanessa to ultimately get the justice she deserves.
Throughout this entire process Vanessa has remained a pillar of strength and determination. Whereas many others in her shoes would have folded in the face of the tragedy she experienced, she has remained determined to protect her family’s legacy.
Vanessa has been in the headlines nonstop as of late. When you factor in her viral message to Klay Thompson, a Pau Gasol clip from July that set the internet ablaze and now this, it feels like it has been one thing after another.
Mind you, this is a woman who had to defend against a brutal legal battle versus her own mom that was rooted in very strange and unreasonable reasoning.
Then she has had to fend off accusations about her changing body in the court of public opinion.
And through it all, she has remained as powerful and impressive as ever.
Yikes. https://t.co/6Xfwkd5eDI
— Game 7 (@game7__) August 7, 2022
One way or another, hopefully Vanessa and the Bryant family ultimately get the justice they deserve in this battle against LA County.
The Bryant family always was and always will be royalty in Los Angeles.
And because of that, fans will never stop rooting for them to win.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
