{"id":3357,"date":"2020-09-25T14:05:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T19:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/?p=3357"},"modified":"2020-09-25T18:18:44","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T23:18:44","slug":"accountability-vanessa-bryant-sues-la-sheriffs-department-for-unauthorized-photos-taken-of-helicopter-crash-that-killed-kobe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/accountability-vanessa-bryant-sues-la-sheriffs-department-for-unauthorized-photos-taken-of-helicopter-crash-that-killed-kobe\/","title":{"rendered":"ACCOUNTABILITY: Vanessa Bryant sues LA Sheriff\u2019s Department for unauthorized photos of crash that killed Kobe"},"content":{"rendered":"

She is \u201cshocked and devastated\u201d and demands \u201caccountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanessa Bryant, widow of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, filed a lawsuit against the LA County Sheriff\u2019s Department for graphic photos taken and shared by emergency personnel in the aftermath of the fatal helicopter crash that killed her husband, their 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others. Vanessa claims that on the day of the crash (January 26) she asked Sheriff Alex Villanueva personally to designate the site a no-fly zone and to restrict photographers\u2019 access to the site as a precaution to protect her family\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n

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Despite assurances by the Sheriff, soon after the crash a deputy responder was overheard sharing an image from the crash site with a woman at a bar in Norwalk, CA. According to the complaint, the bartender reported the interaction with the Sheriff\u2019s Department and rather than notifying the victims\u2019 families, Sheriff Villanueva \u201cdirected a coverup\u201d by foregoing disciplinary action against deputies involved as long as they deleted the photos. Sheriff Villanueva conceded in an interview with NBC in March that he ordered eight deputies to delete photos that they had personally taken of the crash in an effort \u201cto make sure those photos no longer existed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although according to Sheriff Villanueva, \u201cas a result of [his] swift actions\u2026no pictures made it into the public arena,\u201d Vanessa is adamant that there is no guarantee that all of the photos were deleted and that she \u201cfeels ill at the thought of strangers gawking at images of her deceased husband and child and she lives in fear that she or her children will one day confront horrific images of their loved ones online.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The lawsuit alleges that \u201cno fewer than eight sheriff\u2019s deputies\u201d took photos of the deceased on their \u201cpersonal cellphones\u201d and for \u201ctheir own personal gratification.\u201d Vanessa is seeking unspecified damages for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) and invasion of privacy. Invasion of privacy is a broad tort claim and under the facts, Vanessa is most likely alleging either public disclosure of private facts and\/or intrusion upon seclusion. Typically, any disclosure of medical information or police records is brought as an action under public disclosure of private facts.<\/p>\n

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Given Kobe’s fame and the public nature\/coverage of the crash, do you think Vanessa will be successful in bringing her invasion of privacy claim?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She is \u201cshocked and devastated\u201d and demands \u201caccountability.\u201d Vanessa Bryant, widow of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, filed a lawsuit against…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34],"tags":[1230,47,304,1233,1231,616,1226,1234,1235,632,317,599,262,1232,97,1229,1227,1228,600],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3357"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3380,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357\/revisions\/3380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}