A leading Los Angeles County coroner delivered a gruesome testimony on Thursday regarding the condition of the remains of basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna following the 2020 helicopter tragedy that killed all nine passengers.
Captain Emily Tauscher, head of investigations at the LA County Coroner's office, testified on the second day of Vanessa Bryant's trial against Los Angeles County.
LA County Fire Captains and LA County Sheriff's Deputies took and shared Kobe Bryant Crash photos in late January 2020.
Tauscher offered significant insight into the horrible image that was probably caught in the photographs taken by LA County sheriff's deputies and fire captains, creating a horrifying picture of the crash site in the minds of those in the courtroom, as per an Insider report.
She also spoke about the coroner's office's picture procedures, stressing the sheriff's department's system's more ad-hoc approach to site photography, which let inappropriate photos be taken and distributed.
Following claims that first responders photographed and exchanged pictures of the January 2020 crash site, Vanessa Bryant sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the county's fire department, the county as a whole, and eight officers in September 2020.
Chris Chester, whose wife Sarah and daughter Peyton perished in the collision, is suing county employees on the same federal and state claims and will testify with Bryant against the county during a joint 9-day trial.
Tauscher, a crucial witness for Bryant and Chester, provided incredibly frank and vivid testimony regarding the post-crash physical state of each victim.
Before her testimony commenced, Bryant and Chester both departed the courtroom.
Tauscher stated that the crash's human debris was dispersed across a distance of 500 yards, resulting in an impact zone that was larger than two football fields and a magnesium fire that was raging.
Because of the severity of their injuries, the bulk of the victims had to be recognized via science, she said. Tauscher said that Kobe Bryant's skin tone and the tattoos on his arm helped him identify him.
She testified in front of the jury that due to the severe and unrecognizable state of the bodies, the coroner's office did not ask the families to identify their loved ones following the crash.
The official said: "Seeing someone you love in that state would create an image that stays with them forever."
According to Tauscher's testimony, the coroner's office took roughly 1,250 images of the crash site, of which about 300 showed human remains. She also maintained that neither LASD nor LACFD had ever been asked by the coroner's office to take pictures of the bodies.
Bartender Claims Seeing 'Parts' of Crash Victims
Victor Gutierrez, a bartender, also testified on Thursday that he was working an evening shift at a Mexican restaurant in Norwalk, California, in late January 2020 when a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy who was not on duty sat down at the bar, took out his personal cell phone, and began posting gory and disturbing images of dead bodies.
Deputy Joey Cruz, a "regular" customer at Baja California Bar & Grill, claimed the Kobe Bryant Crash photos were from the scene of the horrific helicopter crash.
Gutierrez struggled to respond when asked how many images appeared to depict Kobe Bryant's remains. He said, "I wouldn't really be able to say because it was just parts. He once more struggled to respond when asked if he saw a picture of "what appeared to be a girl." He replied, "They were just parts."
Vanessa Walks Out
Vanessa Bryant became visibly emotional at the apparent reference to her daughter Gianna. According to Rolling Stone, Vanessa could not hold back her crying as one of her lawyers interrupted the proceedings to request that she be allowed to leave. She held a palm to her face and stood up moments later, heading straight for the door.
Under cross-examination by county lawyer Mira Hashmall, Gutierrez claimed he had great admiration for the former Lakers superstar. "The day I found out Kobe Bryant died, I actually was crying," he said.
Hashmall claimed that Deputy Cruz was a rookie in January 2020 and that he now regrets his actions in her opposing opening statement on Wednesday. She firmly believed that the Bryant family's constitutional right to privacy had not been infringed by the county.
As they were traveling to a girls' basketball game on January 26, 2020, a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, the couple's 13-year-old daughter Gianna, baseball coach John Altobelli, and his family, crashed near Malibu. The disaster claimed the lives of all nine passengers, including pilot Ara Zobayan.
Federal safety officials blamed pilot error for the accident, per a report on NBA official website.
