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Jury selected in Vanessa Bryant v. LA County case over Kobe helicopter crash photos

2022-08-10T20:50:24.653Z


Vanessa Bryant's trial against Los Angeles County officials over photos of Kobe Bryant's fatal helicopter crash is scheduled to begin Wednesday.


They reveal who would have photographed the remains of Kobe 1:55

(CNN) --

A jury of six women and four men was selected Wednesday in Vanessa Bryant's lawsuit against Los Angeles County over horrific photos taken from the fatal helicopter crash that killed her husband Kobe, their daughter Gianna and seven other people.

Opening statements are scheduled to begin at the trial on Wednesday afternoon.

The trial is expected to last about two weeks and witnesses are likely to include Vanessa Bryant and Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

Selected jurors include a nun, someone who works in television production for NBC Universal, a college student, a real estate investor, a pharmaceutical researcher, a computer science professor and a restaurant host.

  • Close-up images of Gianna and Kobe Bryant's remains were 'shown in bars and at an awards show', Vanessa Bryant's lawyers say

Of the total of 22 possible jurors questioned, some mentioned having "strong feelings" towards Vanessa and/or Kobe Bryant.

At least one potential juror mentioned "strong feelings" about Villanueva.

None of these people were selected.

The trial comes more than two years after retired NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.

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In the federal lawsuit, Vanessa Bryant claimed that photos of the January 2020 crash were shared by county sheriff's and fire department employees in locations irrelevant to the investigation, including a bar.

Filed in September 2020, the lawsuit seeks undisclosed damages, alleging civil rights violations, negligence, emotional distress, and violation of privacy.

However, the county has argued that the "serious emotional and mental injuries" were not caused by the county or the photos, but by the fatal crash itself.

The plaintiffs have not seen the photos of the crash site, which were "never released publicly," the county argued.

They remember Kobe Bryant and his daughter with a statue 0:42

In March 2020, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said all of those photos had been removed and eight sheriff's deputies were facing administrative action.

The helicopter passengers were en route from Orange County to the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks for a youth basketball game in which Bryant was to coach and Gianna and two others on board were to play.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the pilot of the helicopter exceeded the limits of the flight rules in bad weather, climbed into the clouds, became disoriented with respect to the position of the helicopter in relation to the horizon, and made a spin. descending to the left towards a hillside obscured by clouds.

Bryant played his entire professional career with the Los Angeles Lakers and won five NBA championships before retiring in April 2016.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an invasion of privacy bill called the "Kobe Bryant Act" in September 2020 that makes it illegal for first responders to share photos of a dead person at a crime scene "for any purpose that not be for an official law enforcement purpose."

The misdemeanor is punishable by up to $1,000 per offense.

CNN's Stella Chan contributed to this report.

Kobe Bryant Vanessa Bryant

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-08-10

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