Thursday 11 August 2022 04:25 AM Kobe Bryant's widow BREAKS DOWN in court as lawyer describes how graphic crash ... trends now

Kobe Bryant's widow broke down in court as her attorney told the jury how Los Angeles first responders leaked photos of her late husband and daughter's mangled corpses.

Vanessa Bryant sobbed in a federal courtroom Wednesday as her lawyer described how sheriff's deputies and firefighters shared graphic images of NBA star's 'decapitated body' to random people at a California bar just two days after he died.

Kobe, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others perished in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020. The group was flying to a girls basketball tournament when their chartered chopper crashed in the Calabasas hills.

Vanessa has filed a multi-million-dollar federal invasion of privacy suit against the LA County Sheriff's Department over the leaked photos.

She claims she suffered 'severe emotional distress' and became 'physically ill' at the thought of strangers 'gawking' at graphic images of her dead husband and daughter.

The grieving mother and wife alleged the officers did not take the photos for investigative purposes but instead 'for their own personal gratification.'

Vanessa's attorney, Luis Li, told the 10-member jury how law enforcement officers 'exploited the accident' by taking a sharing 'pictures of Kobe and Gianna as souvenirs' during a dramatic opening statement Wednesday.

Li began his statement by showing video footage of Deputy Joey Cruz seated at the Baja California Bar & Grill in Norwalk, California.  

The officer is seen holding up his cell phone to the bartender to show him something. The employee 'visibly recoils' from the grisly sight, allegedly of Kobe's corpse, and walks away.

'January 26, 2020, was and always will be the worst day of Vanessa Bryant’s life,' Li told the courtroom, according to Rolling Stone. 'This case is about accountability. We’re going to prove to you that county employees took pictures and shared them widely.'

The attorney described how deputies and firefighters 'walked around the wreckage and took pictures of broken bodies from the helicopter crash.'

'They took close-ups of limbs, of burnt flesh. It shocks the conscience,' Li said, before playing an audio clip of a detective claiming his wife refused to view the pictures after he described the crash victims as 'piles of meat.'

The 'gratuitous images' were heavily talked about within the sheriff's department and often displayed during 'settings that had nothing to do with investigating the accident,' the lawsuit claims. 

The complaint also alleges that one officer used the victim photos to 'try to impress a woman at a bar, bragging about how he had been at the crash site.'

'County employees exploited the accident. They took and shared pictures of Kobe and Gianna as souvenirs,' Li told the jury. 'They poured salt in an unhealable wound.'

The county claims Vanessa's invasion of privacy lawsuit has 'no legal merit' because the photos were never leaked to the

read more from dailymail.....