Vanessa Bryant Now Has Access To Names Of Deputies
According to the Los Angeles Times, a federal judge in California ruled that Vanessa Bryant now has the ability to obtain and use the names of the sheriff deputies that shared photos of Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crash site from last January of 2020. Previously, Los Angeles county lawyers were able to keep the names and identities of the police officers confidential, but the final ruling of the suit helped reject that effort.
While this decision can still be appealed by the county, Vanessa Bryant currently reserves the right to use the identities in her ongoing case against L.A. County and the Sheriff’s Department.
Origins Of The Case
Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, passed away along with two other teammates of Gianna and five parents on January 26, 2020. Following that, the L.A. Times reported that several photos shared photos of the victims’ remains and that’s when Vanessa Bryant sued the county in pursuit of damages for negligence and invasion of privacy. L.A. County lawyers argued that had the deputies’ identities be released, hackers on the internet would be able to find their location and places of living and harm may have been inflicted upon the sheriff deputies.
The judge assigned to Vanessa Bryant’s case stated:
“Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s promise to publicly release the (internal affairs bureau) report after the conclusion of the investigation undermines Defendants’ purported concern in the disclosure of the limited excerpts at issue here.”
The judge also mentioned that it is within the public interest to investigate the truthfulness and possible wrongdoing of the police force. Hopefully, there will now be a positive end in sight to an unfortunate situation and lawsuit for the Bryant family, as well as the other families affected by the tragic helicopter crash that killed NBA great and father Kobe Bryant.
