More LA County employees accused of exchanging photos of Kobe Bryant crash scene

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Friday, April 16, 2021
18 deputies, firefighters accused of sharing Kobe Bryant crash scene photos
More Los Angeles County employees are being accused of exchanging graphic photos of the crash scene where Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others died.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- More Los Angeles County employees are being accused of exchanging graphic photos of the crash scene where Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others died.

According to a new filing in Vanessa Bryant's lawsuit against the county, a total of 66 "agents or employees" from the county sheriff's and fire department had "relevant knowledge" about the photos.

That includes 18 employees who took, exchanged or possessed photos of the scene, Bryant's attorney Craig Jennings Lavoie wrote in the filing.

Last month, the names of four L.A. County sheriff's deputies accused of sharing the unauthorized photos were released publicly. County attorneys had argued their names should remain under seal, but a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled against them.

Kobe Bryant's widow is naming four members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department who allegedly shared gruesome pictures from the site of the January 2020 crash that killed her husband and daughter and seven others.

Sheriff Alex Vilanueva has promised a full investigation.

Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant, and seven others died Jan. 26, 2020, when the helicopter they were in crashed onto a hillside in Calabasas.