The testimony was part of a federal civil lawsuit filed by Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, who alleges that Los Angeles County invaded her privacy and failed to completely contain the spread of the photos, inflicting a emotional distress.
Tuesday’s testimony blew a big hole in the county’s defense that photographs from the scene were valid because they helped first responders at a command post plan its response.
Capt. Matthew Vander Horck, who heads the sheriff’s station that responded to the 2020 crash, said on the witness stand that the only people who should take pictures of an aviation crash scene are the National Transportation Safety Board and the coroner.
“The only role (deputies) have…is to secure the stage, right?” asked Bryant’s attorney, Luis Li.
“Yes,” agreed Vander Horck.
Li asked if the deputies should then let the federal investigators do their job, and Vander Horck agreed.
However, one of Vander Horck’s own deputies testified that he was asked by a command post supervisor that day to take the pictures. Those photos, which included images of human remains, were later shared among other sheriff and fire department deputies, leading to the federal privacy invasion lawsuit.
Christopher Chester, whose wife and daughter also died in the crash, is a co-plaintiff. He and Bryant allege they live in fear that the photos will resurface online.
Vander Horck agreed with Li that the unofficial photographs cause a “loss of public trust”. He also agreed that county policies allowing deputies to take body photos only apply to traffic accidents and crime scenes, not air disasters. Photos from the crash scene were also not necessary to identify the helicopter, he said.
During questioning, defense attorneys questioned whether Vander Horck’s statements fully applied to the situation on the day of the accident.
“Do you know that when the NTSB showed up the next day, the first thing they asked for was pictures? asked attorney Jason Tokoro, representing the county.
“No, I’m not aware of that,” replied Vander Horck.
“If no one found out, they wouldn’t be punished”
Vander Horck’s testimony was also used by plaintiffs’ attorneys to attack the county’s handling of the photos once it was revealed they had been shared among deputies, one of whom later showed some of the photos to a bartender he considered a friend.
Lawyers alleged that instead of launching a full investigation and preserving evidence, the Sheriff’s Information Office, which handles public information, ordered all deputies involved to report to their posts and s make sure the photos were deleted.
“If no one found out, they wouldn’t be punished,” Vander Horck said. “If the media found out, they would be fired.”
Vander Horck said he had immediate reservations about the order to remove the photos, saying the guidelines were “totally outside the norm and outside the chain of command”.
“We don’t want to be accused of destroying evidence in a federal investigation,” Vander Horck told his superior. He also told the court he was concerned the orders would violate the state peace officer’s bill of rights and potentially compromise an investigation.
“I was told the sheriff … had full power,” he continued. “I repeated that I felt uncomfortable with those instructions…he told me that was the path we were going to take.”
In March 2020, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said all photos had been deleted and eight sheriff’s deputies were facing administrative action. CNN has asked Villanueva for comment.
The defense argued that a longer investigation would involve lawyers and union representatives, which would increase the risk of the photos leaking.
Tokoro asked if those involved in an investigation “would have copies of the photos”, to which Vander Horck replied, “I guess”.
Lawyers debate photos shown at bar
Earlier on Tuesday, Bryant’s attorneys disagreed with Los Angeles County defense attorneys over exactly what was on a deputy sheriff’s phone when he held it up to show a bartender and shared a laugh .
During cross-examination of Deputy Joey Cruz, who received the photos of his training officer while working on the crash in 2020, defense attorneys zoomed in on Cruz’s phone surveillance video to show him scrolling through an Instagram feed rather than reviewing photos of the crash.
“Does this confirm your memory of you looking at your social media?” asked defense attorney Mira Hashmall.
“Yes,” Cruz replied.
But the plaintiffs’ attorneys asked that the video be enlarged at another time.
When questioned by plaintiff’s attorney Craig Lavoie, Cruz agreed that he appeared to have stopped scrolling Instagram and moved on to another feature on the phone, which Lavoie claimed was photos of Bryant’s crash site. Lavoie then notes the reaction of the bartender who “makes gestures across his torso and slashes his neck” and asks Cruz to explain himself.
“I can’t explain his actions,” Cruz replied. He also denied laughing at the crash site photos, saying all the times he was seen smiling in the video were part of an evening spent chilling at the bar with a bartender he considered a good friend.
Cruz said he showed the photos of the bartender’s crash site in another part of the video, saying that was the only time he specifically showed the photos that night.
Cruz was suspended without pay for two days and ordered to complete three days of mandatory training for violating the Sheriff’s Department’s privacy policies.
Showing the bartender was “poor judgment and inconsistent with my training,” Cruz said in court.
“If I could go back…I would do everything differently when it came to the photos,” Cruz said, noting that his misjudgment was part of the stress he felt working the crash scene two days prior. .
But plaintiffs’ attorneys questioned Cruz’s level of stress, noting that he never sought county resources to deal with the stress nor referenced them in a report he filed detailing photo sharing.
“I’ve never been through anything as overwhelming as this. … I made a mistake. … I had poor judgment,” Cruz said.
Jerome Jackson, a lawyer representing co-plaintiff Chester, asked: “One of the reasons you are remorseful is that you deeply hurt my client?
“Yes,” Cruz replied.
“And you know that deeply hurt Ms. Bryant,” Jackson said.
“Yes,” Cruz said.
Court hears about graphic photos shared while playing ‘Call of Duty’
Deputy Michael Russell said Tuesday he obtained photos of Cruz while off duty in the station’s writing room, later telling officials he was “curious” to see them and learn from them.
The day after receiving the photos, Russell was playing the “Call of Duty” video game with another deputy at another station when he agreed to text the photos.
When asked if it was just a casual exchange for him, Russell replied, “It eased more of the stress I had to deal with the day before.”
Russell’s job that day had been to make sure only authorized personnel went to the site as crowds flocked to the scene after news surfaced that Bryant was aboard the helicopter.
Russell – who was never suspended, demoted or placed on probation – was found by an internal investigation to have breached policies by receiving and sending the crash scene photos.
Russell told the court that when he sent the photos to the other deputy, it hadn’t crossed his mind that it violated department policy. “I made a big mistake,” he said.
“If I could go back to that day when I asked (Cruz) for these photos, I wouldn’t do it again,” Russell said. “It was very hard of me.”
