*Back in May, Vanessa Bryantfiled a claim against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for allegedly sharing unauthorized photos of the scene of the Jan. 26 helicopter crash that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant their daughter Gianna, and seven others.
In her claim, she alleged that Sheriff Alex Villanueva personally assured her that deputies were securing the crash site to ensure her privacy, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“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 claim states, according to the Times. “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.”
According to an update by TMZ, Vanessa has officially filed to sue the L.A. County Sheriff and his department, claiming they caused her severe emotional distress when deputies took those graphic photos and shared them with colleagues that had NO investigative purpose — which eventually made its way online.
The lawsuit also notes how the photos were exposed; when a deputy was at a bar and showed the photos to a woman he was trying to impress. The bartender heard the conversation, and called the sheriff’s department.