,type=downsize)
Shaquille O’Neal never had a close relationship with Vanessa Bryant; still, he is proud of her for staying strong and trying to make people accountable during her lawsuit against Los Angeles County. In an interview with ET, the retired basketball player spoke about how Kobe Bryant’s wife is doing the right thing.
“I feel for her,” Shaquille said. “We’ve never talked a lot [but] we’ve always had respect for each other. Every time I see her, it’s a hug, it’s a laugh. But I couldn’t imagine what she’s going through,” he added.
“We live in a world where, especially when it gets to the internet, people don’t care. But those are pictures that I would never, ever want to see, so she’s doing a great thing by holding people responsible,” he assures.
Bryant and the other families hurting from the crash are suing the county and the sheriff for negligence and invasion of privacy. The Board of Supervisors agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle, but the parties involved refused the offer. After the lawsuit, it is now considered a misdemeanor for first responders to take unauthorized pictures of a death scene.
It has over two years since the crash, and such photos have never been leaked; however, for Vanessa Bryant, there is a possibility that they may surface. “For the rest of my life, one of two things will happen either close-up photos of my husband’s and daughter’s bodies will go viral online, or I will continue to live in fear of that happening,” Vanessa Bryant said in 2021.
On October 12, 2021, Vanessa appeared in a Zoom video conference to testify on the morning of the helicopter crash. According to the transcript, filed in court on Friday, October 22, and obtained by E! News, Vanessa said that although she has not seen any photos of her husband and daughter’s remains, she has the clothes that Kobe and Gianna wore during the helicopter. “I had to recover all their items because I know people are sick and would like to take pictures of them and share them,” she said.
“They suffered a lot,” she added. “And if their clothes represent the condition of their bodies, I cannot imagine how someone could be callous and have no regard for them or our friends, and just share the images as if they were animals on a street.”
Vanessa’s lawyer Luis Li spoke about the emotional distress the images taken on January 26, 2020, have had on the philanthropist and businesswoman. According to Rolling Stone, the attorney showed the 10-member jury footage of Deputy Joey Cruz at the Baja California Bar & Grill in Norwalk, showing the images to a bartender who then walked away.
Ralph Mendez, sitting near the bar, noticed that Cruz had photos of the crash site on his phone. After pondering about what he should do next, Mendez decided to inform Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva to avoid the images leaking online.
On August 15, 2022, retired Los Angeles County fire captain Brian Jordan had to take several breaks while sitting on the witness stand. Jordan walked off three times after being questioned about the photos of Kobe Bryant’s remains during the 2020 helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant, 13-year-old Payton Chester, Sarah Chester, 46, 14-year-old Alyssa Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, 46, John Altobelli, 56, Christina Mauser, 38, and pilot Ara Zobayan, 50.
Vanessa’s representative said first responders “walked around the wreckage and took pictures of broken bodies from the helicopter crash. They took close-ups of limbs, of burnt flesh. It shocks the conscience.” The jury also heard audio of an officer’s wife refusing to see the images because they were “piles of meat.”