Gruesome details of Kobe Bryant's death emerge during lawsuit trial against LA county

The trial of Vanessa Bryant, widow of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, against Los Angeles County over the disclosure and dissemination of photos of the bodies of her husband and daughter Gianna has begun with the prosecution's case. During the trial details of the pictures were revealed. 

Vanessa argues that her family's privacy was gravely violated when at least eight police officers took photos of the fatal helicopter crash and shared them.

"The images were shared repeatedly with people who had absolutely no reason to receive them. They took the pictures out for laughs as if they were souvenirs," the Bryant family's lawyer said.

"You saw mangled bodies, close-ups of limbs, and burned flesh," he added.

The attorney supported these claims with a witness: the wife of one of the accused detectives that took the pictures. She described the photos on her husband's cell phone as "piles of meat." In addition, he showed photos of some of the agents showing those photos in a restaurant to other people, contradicting the Los Angeles County defense, which claims that those photos were taken as part of the investigation of the helicopter crash.

The Bryants are asking to find and delete all the photos of the corpses that were taken during those days, well as compensation for damages. 

According to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, the images taken by the agents have not been made public in the media nor on the Internet, so he considers that it is a lawsuit based on pure speculation. However, the lawsuit claims that Vanessa Bryant and her daughters live "with the fear that someday they will face horrible images of their loved ones online."

As for compensation, Los Angeles County was already convicted in 2020, when the families of Christine Mauser and Keri, John and Alyssa Altobelli, four other victims of the helicopter crash where Kobe and Gianna Bryant died, received $2.5 million for unauthorized sharing of the crash photos. This case did not go to trial but was settled between the parties.