A lawyer for Kobe Bryant’s wife informed a jury on Wednesday that an institutional “culture of callousness” encouraged Los Angeles County deputies and firefighters to take and post pictures of the remains of Kobe Bryant and other victims of the 2020 helicopter accident that k*lled the Lakers star, his 13-year-old daughter and seven other people.

In his opening remarks to the jury in Vanessa Bryant’s invasion of privacy trial against the county in US District Court, attorney Luis Li stated that the cell-phone pictures taken at the crash scene by a deputy and a fire captain were “visual gossip” that was viewed “for a laugh” and had no official meaning.

When first responders attempted to convey information at the chaotic, unsafe, and difficult-to-reach accident site in the Calabasas hills west of Los Angeles, an attorney for the county justified the use of photographs as a key tool.

Hashmall explained to the jury that Li only had the video of the bartender because the Sheriff’s Department had obtained it the same day they received a report from a different patron who saw the photo sharing. 

She claimed that the video had been deceptively edited to appear as though the men were laughing together.