Vanessa Bryant can obtain the names of four Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies accused of sharing graphic photos taken at the site of last year's helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, their daughter and seven others, a federal judge ruled Monday.
U.S. District Judge John F. Walter said the sheriff's department failed to show compelling reasons to black out the deputies' names in court filings despite its argument that the officers could be targeted by hackers. Walter also noted that their names should be part of the public record because the case involve allegations of police misconduct.
In an Instagram post overnight, Vanessa Bryant thanked Walter for the ruling and shared a statement by her attorney, Luis Li.
"Transparency promotes accountability," the statement reads. "We look forward to presenting Mrs. Bryant's case in open court."
© Provided by New York Daily NewsWreckage of the crashed helicopter that was carrying former NBA star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna smolders on the ground on January 26, 2020 in Calabasas, California.
Wreckage of the crashed helicopter that was carrying former NBA star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna smolders on the ground on January 26, 2020 in Calabasas, California. (David McNew/)
The ruling stems from a civil rights lawsuit the NBA star's widow filed in September claiming several deputies took "unauthorized" photos of the dead children, parents and coaches "for their own personal gratification" and showed them to colleagues who were not involved in the investigation. One of the deputies even used the grisly images to try to impress a woman at a bar, "bragging about how he had been at the crash site," the federal complaint alleges.
In court filings seeking to seal the deputies' names, the sheriff's department claimed its officers "did not distribute any photographs outside of LASD" and that doing so internally "does not, could not, violate the law." The agency argued that publishing the names, addresses and other personal information of the deputies involved in the case could make them susceptible to online harassment and attacks.
Walter didn't buy that argument.
"Although the Court recognizes that this case has been the subject of public scrutiny and media attention and that the Deputy Defendants are legitimately concerned that they will encounter vitriol and social media attacks, such concerns, by themselves, are not sufficient to outweigh the public's strong interest in access," Walter wrote in his ruling.
"Moreover, Defendants' concern that hackers may attempt to seek out and gain access to the individual deputies' devices to locate any photographs and publish them is totally inconsistent with their position that such photographs no longer exist," he added.
Monday's ruling came a day after Vanessa Bryant slammed the sheriff's department for seeking to shield the deputies' identities.
© GABRIEL BOUYSKobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant (GABRIEL BOUYS/)
"They want their names to be exempt from the public," she wrote an Instagram story. "Anyone else facing these allegations would be unprotected, named and released to the public."
Her attorneys noted in a legal filing last week that the sheriff's department didn't offer a single case "in which a police officer being sued for civil rights violations has been allowed to proceed anonymously."
Vanessa Bryant previously said that she felt physically "ill" whens she learned that strangers were "gawking" at images of her loved ones' dead bodies. Besides the Lakers legend, the horrific crash on Jan. 26, 2020, also killed the couple's 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, two of the girl's teammates on Kobe Bryant's Mamba Sports Academy's girls' basketball team, the children's parents and the pilot.
The victims were traveling to a youth basketball tournament when the chopper flew into dense fog in Calabasas, Calif., crashed and caught fire. A federal investigation found that the wreck was caused by pilot error likely linked to "self-induced pressure" to please a celebrity client.