Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Doug Johnson took the stand on the third day of Vanessa Bryant’s federal lawsuit against the county and said he took 25 photos at the scene of the California crash and texted them to two firefighters he believed to be high ranking. Johnson said about a third of his photos were close-ups of body parts and told the court they were taken at the behest of the department’s Raul Versailles, who was at the command post at the bottom of the Calabasas hill where the helicopter hit. Bryant’s lawyers, who claim workers took “souvenir photographs,” countered Johnson’s claim by playing a recording of Versailles, saying, “All of us at headquarters, including myself, did not ask for photographs.” The deputy’s testimony also contradicted the affidavit of Malibu Search & Rescue Reserve Deputy David Katz, who told the court Thursday that Johnson told him he took 100 photos. Johnson testified that he and another deputy drove over the rough hillside terrain and arrived at the crash site at about 11:30 a.m. on January 26, 2020, finding it strewn with severed body parts. Upon arrival he spoke with two men he thought were Los Angeles County Fire officials, he testified. Johnson told them that one of his jobs was to take pictures of the entire scene. Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputy Douglas Johnson said about a third of his photos were close-ups of body parts. When asked if he interpreted that to mean he was instructed to pull up close-up body parts, Johnson replied, “Yes, sir.” The deputy testified that he took footage of a black man’s severed arm and hand, a close-up of a shin, a dark-skinned leg and a torso found near the helicopter. The photos were possibly of the retired 41-year-old NBA star. “I don’t recall seeing the victim’s head,” Johnson said. “I remember [it having] a trunk and a pair of pants.” Johnson said he also took close-up photos of bodies in a ravine. One of them was a child with long black hair and black skin—probably Yanna, 13 years old. He sent the gruesome photos to Capt. Brian Johnson and another uniformed firefighter who he assumed was a captain, according to testimony. That person remained unidentified, he told the court. At one point, one of Vanessa’s lawyers, Eric Tuttle, asked, “Did it ever occur to you that it’s not right to have close-ups of human remains on your personal cell phone?” Johnson replied, “No, sir,” and repeated the answer when asked if he regretted taking the photos or if he would have done anything differently. Johnson told the court he wouldn’t have done anything different. Mona Shafer Edwards / BACKGRID During cross-examination, Jennifer Mira Hashmall, the defense attorney representing Los Angeles County, county sheriffs and the county fire department, asked Johnson if he knew who was involved in the crash at the time. “When you took the pictures, did you know it was Kobe Bryant who was in the air?” “No, ma’am,” replied the deputy. Johnson said an internal investigation was conducted and he was interviewed twice, but said he was never disciplined in connection with a complaint filed by Deputy Katz. Vanessa’s attorneys claimed county officials improperly shared the private photos, causing her “severe emotional distress and compounding the trauma of losing Kobe and Gianna.” The widow broke down in tears on Thursday as a bartender testified that an MP had shown her photos of Kobe’s remains while he was behind bars. Earlier Friday, a retired cop testified that police officers in Los Angeles have a culture of keeping “goblin books” with graphic photos of dead celebrities and other high-profile victims for their own amusement. Kobe, Gianna and seven others — Christina Mauser. Payton and Sarah Chester; John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli. and pilot Ara Zobayan — were killed when Bryant’s helicopter crashed into a hillside in thick fog. The group had gone to a youth basketball game in Thousand Oaks.
