Vanessa Bryant Privacy Trial Set to Begin Live

Vanessa Bryant’s attorney Luis Li told jurors in his opening statement in U.S. District Court in her invasion of privacy trial against the county that the cell-phone photos shot at the crash scene by a deputy and a fire captain were “visual gossip” viewed “for a laugh,” and had no official purpose.

An attorney for the county defended the taking of the photos as an essential tool for first-responders seeking to share information when they thought they might still save lives at the chaotic, dangerous, and hard-to-reach crash scene in the Calabasas hills west of Los Angeles “Site photography is essential,” county lawyer J. Mira Hashmall said.

Orange County financial adviser Chris Chester also filed a lawsuit against the county for photos taken of his wife and daughter killed in the same crash. In July, U.S. District Judge John Walter decided to consolidate Bryant’s and Chester’s trials.

Both Bryant and Chester claim they suffered emotional distress because of the alleged sharing of photos.