Vanessa Bryant figures turnabout is fair play.
Since members of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department allegedly shared macabre photos of her deceased husband and daughter, Kobe and Gianna “Gigi” Bryant, the grieving widow and mother decided to share their names with the public.
Bryant shared her lawsuit with her 14.4 Instagram followers on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, highlighting the names of the four defendants from the sheriff’s department — identified as Joey Cruz, Rafael Mejia, Michael Russell and Raul Versales — who are accused of imprudently using their cellphones to capture crash scene footage.
In all, Bryant is suing Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department. Neither LASD nor the LAFD has commented as of Thursday morning, March 18, 2021.
Bryant also revealed in the lawsuit documents, according to People magazine, that she had conveyed her desire to Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva that the crash scene be secured and cordoned off from outsiders.
However, the “assurance was hollow … sheriff’s deputies who responded to the crash used personal cell phones to take gratuitous photos of the dead children, parents, and coaches,” the document read in one of the IG posts.
“Photos of the remains quickly spread within the Sheriff’s Department as deputies transmitted them to one another via text message and AirDrop,” the document reads. “Within forty-eight hours, at least ten members of the Sheriff’s Department obtained photos of the victims’ remains on their personal cell phones despite having no legitimate governmental use of the photos.”
