In excruciating detail, Vanessa Bryant explains how her anxiety and fear about the photos taken of her late husband Kobe and daughter Gianna Bryant still affect her.
In her ongoing case with Los Angeles County, she revealed in the documents obtained by TMZ that she explicitly requested Sheriff Alex Villanueva to protect the crash site and not allow anyone to take pictures of what was left behind on Jan. 26, after discovering there were no survivors.
In court documents, Vanessa said she told the sheriff, “If you can’t bring my husband and baby back, please make sure no one takes photographs of them.”
She claims she found out a month later that Sheriff’s deputies and firefighters were sharing images of Kobe and Gianna’s bodies, which she had hoped to avoid. Vanessa claims that hearing this enraged her and put her in a constant state of distress, which she claims was exacerbated by the fact that the information would leak and be widely distributed online.
Vanessa believes at least 20 different people received copies of the images, despite the County’s claim that they had all been secured/scrubbed.
She also claims in the filings that she had viewed one photo appearing to reveal her late husband’s corpse, claiming, “Since viewing the photo, I’ve been tormented with thoughts of who took it and whether it depicts my husband.”
She adds, “It infuriates me that the people I trusted to protect the dignity of my husband and daughter abused their positions to obtain souvenirs of their deaths, as though possessing pictures of their remains somehow makes them special. I imagine Kobe watching over what occurred at that crash scene, and I am overcome by anger and emotion.”
And there’s more … “I feel sick at the thought that deputies and firefighters have gawked at photos of my husband’s and child’s bodies without any reason. I also feel extreme sadness and anger knowing that photos of my husband’s and daughter’s bodies were laughed about while shown at a bar and awards banquet.”
She emphasizes how today’s technology allows pictures to be easily stored, copied, and transferred and she is continually concerned about the photos of her husband and daughter appearing in some way.
Vanessa says that when she types Kobe’s name into Google, a suggested search of “Kobe Bryant body” appears, and it triggers her. Trolls also threaten her by claiming to have the photos and pledging to disclose them, making the situation even more heartbreaking.
Vanessa is concerned that her children will come across the photos while working on a family tree project for school, and that “For the rest of my life, one of two things will happen: either close-up photos of my husband’s and daughter’s bodies will go viral online, or I will continue to live in fear of that happening.”
Her documents were submitted in response to the County’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
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