- A woman who witnessed Los Angeles fire officials sharing photos of Kobe Bryant’s crash testified Friday.
- Luella Weireter also lost two family members in the January 2020 helicopter crash.
- Weireter was one of two citizens who filed a complaint against the county over the shared photos.
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A woman who lost two family members in the January 2020 helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna testified in court Friday that weeks after the tragedy, she witnessed firefighters in Los Angeles County share horrifying photos from the crash scene at the gala.
Luella Weirether gave emotional testimony on the third day of the trial between Vanessa Bryant and Los Angeles County. Bryant filed a lawsuit against the county and other defendants alleging that Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies and Los Angeles County fire captains took and shared photos of the scene of the helicopter crash in late January 2020.
Weireter, an integral witness in Bryant’s case, is inextricably linked to the tragedy. She lost her cousin and father-in-law in the crash; I later witnessed Los Angeles County Fire officials sharing photos from the scene; and testified Friday that she had previously witnessed a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy take a gruesome photo of a suicide victim in an unrelated matter when she was working as an emergency physician.
Weireter was one of two citizens who filed complaints against Los Angeles County alleging that officials shared photos from the site. A judge earlier this month ruled that Weireter could testify under certain conditions.
On January 26, 2020, a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, and baseball coach John Altobelli and his family crashed near Malibu, California, while on their way to a girls basketball game. All nine people on board, including pilot Ara Zobayan, died in the crash.
In September 2020, Vanessa Bryant sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the county fire department, the county as a whole and eight officials following reports that first responders took and shared photos of the crash scene in January 2020.
Chris Chester, whose wife Sarah and daughter Peyton died in the crash, is also suing county officials on the same claims and will have a consolidated nine-day trial along with Bryant against the county.
Weireter on Friday described the grief she felt over the loss of her cousin, Carrie Altobelli, and Carrie’s husband, John Altobelli, who both died in the crash. She said in the courtroom that Carrie Altobelli was her “idol.”
Weireter said she was still in mourning when she attended the 70th annual Golden Mike Awards gala less than a month later with her husband, who is a public information officer for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
At one point during the awards ceremony, Weireter said she walked into a cocktail lounge where she saw former Los Angeles Fire Department PIO Tony Imbrenda and his wife, as well as Fire Captain Skye Cornell and his girlfriend, as well as another firefighter with their partner, all huddled around Imbrenda’s phone.
As the group dispersed, Weireter claims that Imbrenda’s wife excitedly asked Weireter to look at the photos of Kobe that the group had just viewed. Weireter also testified that she heard Cornell say, “I can’t believe I just looked at Kobe’s burned body and I’m about to eat it.”
Days after the incident, Weireter said she was still shocked and disgusted by what she witnessed and went to the Malibu Fire Department to file a complaint.
Vanessa Bryant’s lawsuit seeks punitive damages from the county defendants. She is suing the county for claims of negligence, emotional distress and invasion of privacy, as well as federal claims that relate to her constitutional right to the images of her deceased loved ones and the Los Angeles County agency’s practices that she can have led to the taking and distribution of photographs.
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