Sheriff Alex Villanueva at a press conference held in Hall of Justice on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva at a press conference held in Hall of Justice on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA.Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
  • The Kobe Bryant crash site photos were the subject of testimony by the LA Sheriff.

  • He was the first witness in Los Angeles County.

  • He ordered his staff to get rid of the photos.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's efforts to contain the gruesome helicopter crash site of Kobe Bryant after the tragic event was defended by the sheriff.

Los Angeles County's first witness was called to the stand after the eighth day of the trial.

After learning of a citizen's complaint that a deputy had shown graphic photos at a bar, he doubled down on his deletion order.

The universe was expanding infinitely as a result of the delay. With demands for legal and union representation by his staff, a traditional initial inquiry into who took the photos and distributed them could have been drawn out.

Policies are more important than dealing with a crisis. There was no way to prepare for this.

During that meeting at the Lost Hills Sheriff's station, he told his staff that they wouldn't be disciplined if they came forward with any photos they sent to other people.

He admitted that his staff's phones were not searched at the time of the crash and that he took their word for the deletion of the photos.

Emails showed that Bryant's attorneys requested that the LASD preserve all evidence related to the taking and sharing of photos at the crash site in order to prepare for their lawsuit. LASD said it would not be able to assist with the request because of the California Public Records Act and an ongoing investigation into the distribution of the photos.

Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and the county's fire department were sued by the Bryant's in September 2020.

Bryant's team was made aware of the findings from the internal investigation by December of that year.

The photos were determined to have been in the possession of the devices. He didn't hear testimony that deputy Doug Johnson took close to 100 photos at the scene.

At this point in the game, the fact that it hasn't appeared on social media is a positive sign. I allowed them to go free to stop the spread.

The brush fire and the threat of "looky-loos" at the crash site meant that some of the information he's gleaned since March 2020, when he said that only the coroner's office should have taken photos, was incorrect.

He testified that he believed his investigators to be thorough and that he had expected them to look at phones and cloud accounts.

He said that "god knows, that's about it" when asked if he knew that the photos were permanently deleted.

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