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 Los Angeles Police Department Special Investigator Adam Bercovici testified. “These books of death are widespread and well known. The police keep them as souvenirs and have no investigative value,” he said. Bercovici took the stand as an expert witness on the third day of the trial in Vanessa Bryant’s federal lawsuit against the county and said he was shown a “goblin book” of Nicole Brown Simpson’s nearly decapitated body while at work. “It was a random Polaroid and I said to myself, ‘This shouldn’t be happening.’ I said, ‘That wasn’t nice.’ It was very graphic,” he said, adding that the problem is widespread among law enforcement in Southern California . Los Angeles Police Department officers often get angry, dismissing photos of dead celebrities as “personal memorabilia.” His comments came as the wife of a Los Angeles County firefighter testified that she saw a smoker showing his colleagues photos of the helicopter crash that killed the NBA legend just weeks after the January 26, 2020, tragedy. Luella Weireter — who is also related to Keri Altobelli, a victim who died in the same accident — testified that she saw Tony Imbrenda of the LA County Fire Department sharing the photos at an awards gala on February 15, 2020. After seeing it, she said she felt upset and started crying. Among those high-profile victims whose photos LAPD officers have 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 took a look, I saw them looking at his phone,” he testified. “I was just disgusted, shocked and just trying to keep my cool, but I was emotional.” Luella said she finally reported the incident to the fire department about three weeks later, despite the risks associated with her husband working there. Vanessa Bryant, seen arriving in court on August 12, 2022, is suing Los Angeles County for sharing photos of her late husband’s body. BACKGRID “What [Imbrenda] he did was wrong. Something had to be done… I didn’t want to see it happen again,” he explained. Bercovici, who was paid $28,000 as an expert witness for the Plaintiffs, said only two entities should have been allowed to take photos of the accident scene – the National Transportation Safety Board and the county Coroner’s Office. “There was no reason for (the deputies) to take the pictures, and if they did that, the pictures should have been entered into evidence and preserved,” Bercovici said. He continued, “You need clear, specific policies … that apply to many situations. You must be held accountable when these policies are violated.” Bercovici said he reviewed thousands of pages of reports in 40 hours and concluded that the county Sheriff’s Department made zero effort to preserve the photos shared by deputies and first responders. He added that the phones would also have to be secured for any internal or federal investigations related to the crash. Bercovici said deputies and first responders were told to wipe all traces of the images from their personal phones. “You lose everything to conduct an investigation … to get to the truth of what happened,” Bercovici said. Retired LAPD Special Investigator Adam Bercovici testified that a Polariod of the nearly decapitated body of Nicole Brown Simpson was shown to him while he was working for the department. In her lawsuit, Vanessa Bryant claims deputies and fire personnel shared photos of her late husband’s body from a helicopter crash scene in January 2020. Her daughter Gianna, 13, also died in the crash. U.S. District Judge John Walter upheld Bryant’s lawsuit with a similar claim filed by Orange County financial advisor Chris Chester, who lost his wife Sarah and their 13-year-old daughter, Peyton, in the tragic crash. Gianna 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 lawsuit that there is no evidence the images were shared publicly. On Thursday, a bartender testified that a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy showed him photos of her NBA legend husband’s sad scene.
