#Gigi bryant trial

For Mendez, that interaction was enough to file a citizen complaint. Gutierrez said he didn't know why he was making those gestures. Videos showed Gutierrez making motions towards his head, neck, and torso as if to describe the injuries in the photos when speaking with other parties.

When Gutierrez told him what Cruz had shared with him, Mendez said he was 'in disbelief, disgusted and angry.' Seated at one of the tables that Gutierrez animatedly walked up to was Ralph Mendez Jr., a Norwalk real estate investor who had entered the bar with his adult softball team 'Past My Prime' shortly before Cruz left. After they settled in, footage showed Gutierrez approaching them and he 'sounded very excited,' Mendez told the court. 'We never laughed about the photos, I'm 100% sure of that – what type of human beings would we be.' Gutierrez told the court. By Nia Tipton Written on Photo: Instagram It has been two and a half years since Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna Bryant, perished in a helicopter crash, leaving his. Gutierrez denied to the court that he and Cruz were laughing at what they looked at on his phone. During testimony Thursday, Gutierrez was often forgetful and told the court that he did not remember most of the conversations he had that night. When Cruz left, video footage showed Gutierrez going up to cooks, coworkers, and customers at tables – at least five separate parties – telling them what he saw. Bryant is suing the county for negligence, emotional distress, and invasion of privacy claims as well as federal claims which relate to the constitutional right to the images of her deceased loved ones, and LA County agency practices that led to the alleged taking and dissemination of photos. Her suit is seeking punitive damages from county defendants who are accused of taking and sharing crash site photos. In September 2020, Bryant sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the county's fire department, the county as a whole, and eight officers in the wake of reports reported on by the LA Times that first responders took and shared photos of the January 2020 crash site. Cruz, then a 4-month trainee of the LASD, had responded to the helicopter crash site on January 26, 2020, where nine people died.Ĭounty officials have not denied that Cruz shared the photos at the bar, saying the young trainee's behavior was a 'lapse.' They maintain the photos did not spread from outside the bar and were deleted shortly after. Victor Gutierrez, a Norwalk, California, bartender was working at the Baja California Bar and Grill on January 28, 2020, when his friend, LA Sheriff's Deputy Joey Cruz walked in wearing a leather jacket and a white t-shirt.

#Gigi bryant trial

On the second day of Vanessa Bryant's trial against Los Angeles County over improper helicopter crash site photos taken and shared of Kobe and Gianna 'Gigi' Bryant, key witnesses who were around when the photos were shown in public addressed the court. A private citizen said he felt a 'sense of betrayal' when a Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy showed grisly photos of Kobe Bryant's dead body to a bartender, who went table-to-table telling patrons and employees about what he had just seen.