Los Angeles cops and deputies have a culture of keeping “goblin books” with graphic photos of dead celebrities and other high-profile victims like Kobe Bryant for their own kicks, a retired police officer testified Friday.
Police in the star-studded city often keep “personal mementos” of deaths involving famous people — and share them with each other in locker rooms and other casual settings, retired LAPD Special Investigator Adam Bercovisi testified.
“These books about death are widespread and well known. Police keep them as souvenirs and have no investigative value,” he said.
Bercovisi took the stand as an expert witness on the third day of Vanessa Bryant’s federal trial against the county and said he was shown a “ghost book” featuring the nearly decapitated corpse of Nicole Brown Simpson while he was at work.
“It was a random Polaroid and I was like, ‘This shouldn’t be shared.’ I said, “That wasn’t great.” It was very graphic,” he said, adding that the problem is widespread among law enforcement agencies in Southern California.
Officers at the Los Angeles Police Department often keep bloody, disturbing photos of deceased celebrities as “personal memorabilia.”
His comments came as the wife of a Los Angeles County firefighter testified she saw a puff of smoke while showing colleagues photos taken of the helicopter crash that killed the NBA legend weeks after the Jan. 26, 2020, tragedy.
Luella Weireter — who is also a relative of Kerry Altobelli, a victim who died in the same accident — testified that she saw Toni Imbrenda of the Los Angeles County Fire Department sharing the photos at the awards gala on February 15, 2020.
After seeing it, she said she felt disgusted and started crying.
Among those high-profile victims whose photos LAPD officials shared are Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. AP
“He had his phone in front of him and they were looking at his phone. When I looked, I saw them staring at his phone,” she testified.
“I was just disgusted, shocked and just trying to keep my composure, but I was emotional.”
Luella said she eventually reported the incident to the fire department about three weeks later, despite the risks associated with her husband’s job there.
Vanessa Bryant, seen arriving in court on August 12, 2022, is suing Los Angeles County for sharing photos of her late husband’s corpse. BACKGRID
“What [Imbrenda] it was wrong. Something had to be done… I didn’t want to see him again,” she explained.
Bercovisi, who was paid $28,000 as an expert witness for the plaintiffs, said only two organizations should have been allowed to take pictures of the accident scene – the National Transportation Safety Board and the County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“There was no reason for (the deputies) to take the pictures, and if they did, the pictures should become evidence and should be preserved,” Bercovici said.
He continued: “You need clear, specific policies … that apply to multiple situations. You must be responsible when these policies are violated.
Bercovisi said he reviewed thousands of pages of reports in 40 hours and concluded that the county sheriff’s department made no effort to preserve the photos that were shared by deputies and first responders. He added that the phones must also be secured for any internal investigations or the federal probe into the crash.
Bercovisi said deputies and first responders were instead told to delete all traces of the photos from their personal phones.
“You go to great lengths to conduct an investigation … to get to the truth of what happened,” Bercovici said.
Retired LAPD Special Investigator Adam Bercovisi testified that a Polaroid of the nearly decapitated corpse of Nicole Brown Simpson was shown to him while he worked for the department.AP
In her lawsuit, Vanessa Bryant claims that deputies and firefighters shared photos of her late husband’s disfigured corpse from the scene of a helicopter crash in January 2020. Her daughter Janna, 13, also died in the crash.
U.S. District Judge John Walter consolidated Bryant’s lawsuit with a similar lawsuit filed by Orange County financial advisor Chris Chester, who lost his wife, Sarah, and their 13-year-old daughter, Peyton, in the tragic accident.
Janna Bryant and Peyton were teammates on the Mamba Sports Academy basketball team, which was coached by the hoops star.
Attorneys representing Los Angeles County wrote in a court filing that there was no evidence the images were shared publicly.
A bartender testified Thursday that a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy showed him photos from the bloody crash scene of her late NBA legend husband.
Add Comment