Warning: This story contains descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy who took close-up photos of dead bodies from the helicopter crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant testified in federal court here Friday that he “didn’t do anything wrong” and was simply obeying an order to take photographs of the scene of the accident that day.
The deputy, Douglas Johnson, said another sheriff’s deputy at his command post, Raul Versales, told him to do so. He said he took about 25 photos, including those of a contorted torso and a “close-up of a shin and a foot that had Black skin tone.”
But the truthfulness of both of those statements was cast into doubt in court Friday under questioning by attorneys for Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow, and Chris Chester, a financial adviser who lost his wife and daughter in the same crash.
“Are you aware that deputy Versales has denied asking you to take photos on January 26, 2020?” asked Eric Tuttle, an attorney for Bryant.
“I am not,” Johnson said.
Tuttle then introduced “Exhibit 111-A,” an audio interview with Versales previously conducted by investigators for the sheriff’s internal affairs bureau.
“All of us at the command post, including myself, we did not request photographs,” Versales said on the recording played in court.
This was Day 3 of Vanessa Bryant’s civil trial against Los Angeles County – and another difficult day for Bryant, who left the…
