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Monday was the fourth day of Vanessa Bryant’s trial against LA County over photos of Kobe and Gigi Bryant’s crash site.
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Several of Los Angeles’ leading sheriff’s deputies testified Monday that their memories are vague and regrettable.
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One of the Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies said he sent the photos to the other two because “curiosity got the better of him.”
A federal court in downtown Los Angeles has conducted an internal investigation into why a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy waited four days from the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Kobe, Gianna Bryant and nine others.
Meanwhile, the close-up photo was shared with at least five law enforcement officers, one of whom admitted to sharing the photo at a bar.
Several Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies involved in disseminating the photo stood up Monday. Vanessa Bryant’s ongoing trial against LA County A first responder who took and shared photos of the bodies of the crash that claimed the lives of her husband, daughter and seven others.
One of those deputies, deputy secretary Rafael Mejia, expressed regret and said he had “succumbed to curiosity” and shared the photos with other officials.
Mejia, who testified shortly after two other MPs, said he received the photos from Deputy MP Andrew Berthal, who helped set up a temporary command post at the base of the mountain where the helicopter crashed.
By 10:30 am on the day of the crash, Command realized that Kobe Bryant may have been in flight.By Noon, Deputy Doug Johnson Sent 30 crash photos to Versales, containing photographs of human remains. Johnson claimed Versailles ordered him to take the photo, which Versailles denied in court on Monday.
“I didn’t expect it, so I was surprised when I received it,” Versalez said. He then airdropped the photo onto his Mejia, who was working his 16-hour shift on the day of the crash, and was stationed at the command post with Deputies Ruby Cable and his own trainee Joey Cruz. . By 9 p.m., he shared the photo with Cruz and Cable.
the cruise continued Sharing a photo at a bar in Norwalk, California.
When asked why he shared the photo in an audio inside LASD interview, Mejia said, “Curiosity got the best of us.”
“It’s our nature as legislators,” added Mejia.
The photos were stored on Mejia’s phone for four days and sent to family and friends until a supervisor called on January 30, 2020, telling them that the sheriff had ordered all personnel in light of the first citizen complaint. It was put together with the photo of The person who reported the crash site to remove the photos of the crash site. Four days later, Mejia deleted the photo from his cell phone, as the photo had already circulated on at least five of his LASD staff member’s personal cell phones.
“Looking back, I probably wouldn’t do it again,” Mejia added.
In an internal Versales interview, he handed LASD investigators (one of whom claimed he “didn’t know how the iPhone worked”) a cell phone and while they perused his text and photo gallery, A total of 2 minutes of audio was recorded.Cruz then proceeds as follows Show some of the pictures to the bartender 2 days after the crash.
In their testimony, Mejia and Versales provided vague explanations as to why they took and shared the photo and what the photo represents. It’s not the first time he’s used a personal cell phone to film a gruesome accident or crime scene, he said.
Helicopter carrying his Kobe Bryant, January 26, 2020 13 year old daughter Gianna Bryant and baseball coach John Altobelli and his family Crashed near Malibu, California on the way to a women’s basketball game. All nine crew members, including pilot Ara Zobayan, were killed in the accident.
Vanessa Bryant, September 2020 sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Departmentthe county fire department, the entire county, and eight officers for violating the constitutional rights of her loved ones. We took and shared close-up photos of the wreckage at the crash site in January 2020Chris Chester, whose wife Sarah and daughter Peyton died in the crash, is also suing county workers for the same federal claim. Integrated 9-day trial alongside Bryant against the county.
Vanessa Bryant’s attorney Craig Lavoy backed Mejia against LASD Sheriff Alex Villanueva in an interview on March 30, 2020.
County attorneys argued that given the crash, the weather conditions, and the ensuing media frenzy, first responders should take pictures of the scene and communicate the nature of the scene to the command post.
In testimony, the attorneys spoke about how they received performance log entries in the months following the incident and after a citizen complaint was filed about the photos being published.
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