Vanessa Bryant leaves courtroom in tears

US

A tearful Vanessa Bryant fled a federal courtroom in Los Angeles during testimony provided from a former bartender who recalled how a sheriff’s deputy trainee showed him photos from the scene of the January 2020 helicopter crash that claimed the lives of her husband, Kobe, and their daughter Gianna.

Another seven people died alongside the Lakers legend and his 13-year-old daughter after their helicopter slammed into a hillside in Calabasas, Calif. They were traveling at the time to a youth basketball game despite foggy conditions sweeping across the area.

Months after the tragedy, Vanessa Bryant sued Los Angeles county, accusing first responders of improperly snapping photos depicting the mangled helicopter and the remains of several of the victims, including those of the NBA superstar.

Vanessa Bryant was openly emotional during the start of trial this week. Her attorney, Luis Li, told jurors in his opening statement that the gruesome photos amount to an invasion of privacy used as nothing more than “visual gossip.”

On Thursday, day two of the trial, Victor Gutierrez, a former bartender at Baja California Bar and Grill in Norwalk, took the stand, according to USA Today. He testified that a deputy trainee, Joey Cruz, asked him if he wanted to see a photo of Bryant’s body days after the deadly crash.

“They were just parts,” Gutierrez said. “I don’t know if they were men or women.”

The jury was also shown surveillance video from the bar in Norwalk on the night Cruz visited. The clips, which did not include audio, showed the pair looking at Cruz’s phone, and then Gutierrez reacting with laughter. It also shows the ex-bartender approaching other patrons at the restaurant and gesturing to his throat, head and torso.

The commentary was enough to get Vanessa Bryant to leave the courtroom in tears. She did not return Thursday.

Li also described firefighters looking at the images two weeks later at an awards banquet, and then showed the jury an animated chart documenting their spread to nearly 30 people.

An attorney for the county has alternatively defended the photos as an essential tool for first responders, who were trying to share information at a time when they thought they might still be able to save lives.

With News Wire Services

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