Lakers: LA County Officials Motions to Dismiss Vanessa Bryant Lawsuit
It looks like attorneys of Los Angeles County have kept up their agenda of trying to avoid trial by all means necessary. The County has previously failed to get Vanessa Bryant to take a psychiatric evaluation with an independent therapist, but managed to get Bryant to turn over her therapy files.
Now, LA County wants the entire lawsuit thrown out, because the photos of the helicopter crash, the same ones that started the entire lawsuit, were deleted and were not able to be recovered.
Apparently, an independent forensic examiner reviewed over 20 LA County Sheriff’s Department and LA County Fire department devices and was not able to find a single crash site photo from that fateful morning. In the court filing, attorneys representing LA County had this to say about it.
“After reviewing over 20 LASD and LACFD devices, Kroll [independent forensics team] confirmed that there are no photos containing victims’ remains and no evidence of public dissemination.
There is therefore nothing for Plaintiff to fear. The photos are gone and, according to Kroll and Plaintiff’s own expert, cannot be recovered.”
The attorneys added that the entirety of Bryant’s claim was based on the fear of the photos being disseminated around publicly, but they argue that none of these photos have circulated in the media or the Internet.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva has already acknowledged that he had his deputies destroy all crash site photos, due to harm that would cause the family.
Bryant’s team filed a motion for sanctions against the County for purging the photos, but a ruling has not been made yet.
A hearing is scheduled for December 27 in federal court, and if the case moves forward, trial is set for February 22.
