Following the deadly crash that killed her husband, daughter, and seven others back in January, Vanessa Bryant has filed legal documents against the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department for releasing victims’ images.
Vanessa is seeking damages for emotional distress after the members of the Los Angeles County’s Sheriff department took pictures of the victims and shared them with others, According to PEOPLE.
“In reality, however, no fewer than eight sheriff’s deputies were at the scene snapping cell-phone photos of the dead children, parents, and coaches,” the document reads. “As the Department would later admit, there was no investigative purpose for deputies to take pictures at the crash site. Rather, the deputies took photos for their own personal purposes.”
Vanessa became aware of the images after an LA Times story broke citing that someone from the department had leaked graphic images from the site and was showing them to a woman at a bar. The women later went an reported it. The incident has caused much more anguish for Vanessa, in fear that the images could still be online and in easy access of her young daughters.
“Mrs. Bryant was distressed to learn that the Department did not initiate a formal investigation until after the L.A. Times broke the story on or about February 28, and that the Department had taken few if any steps to contain the spread of the photos,” the filing adds.
“The sheriff’s deputies who took and shared the photos are thus liable for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of Mrs. Bryant’s right to privacy in the death images of her loved ones,” Vanessa’s legal team writes.
