Vanessa Bryant testifies in federal lawsuit
(CNN) - More than two years after the helicopter crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others, Vanessa Bryant took the witness stand in her federal civil lawsuit against the Los Angeles County.
On Friday, a tearful Bryant gave a heartbreaking testimony, telling the court that she now experiences panic attacks and anxiety over the possibility of seeing photos from the crash.
Recalling the moment she found out, through an L.A. Times article, the L.A. County Sheriff's Deputies shared close-up images of her loved ones' remains from the crash site.
"I just remember not wanting to react cause the girls were in the room...I wanted to run down the block and just scream. I can't escape my body. I can't escape what I feel," Bryant testified.
In addition, Bryant said she received disturbing messages on Instagram. The messages were shown in the courtroom, with someone using a helicopter and flame emjois and threatening to leak the images of her husband's body.
Along with another parent who lost a wife and daughter in the same crash, Chris Chester, Bryant is a co-plaintiff in the case.
"When you talk about emotional distress, clearly Vanessa Bryant and the other plaintiffs grieving the loss of their spouses and children, but that grief turned to horror when you think about these photographs being spread to individuals outside of these law enforcement agencies," CNN Legal Analyst & Civil Rights Attorney Areva Martin spoke.
Also testifying that Friday, Sheriff Alex Villanueva argued that his highest priority was stopping those photos from getting out, but he did not know, for certain, whether the photos had all been deleted after asking his deputies to do so.
