Vanessa Bryant desires a jury to know that the sheriff’s deputy accused of taking helicopter crash scene images of Kobe Bryant was concerned in one other scandal involving extreme drive the place a handcuffed inmate’s head was allegedly knelt on.
However, L.A. County is combating again, insisting the opposite incident is irrelevant, and would critically prejudice the jury.
A couple of yr after Kobe, Gigi, and 7 others tragically died in a helicopter crash, there was an incident inside a county jail involving a deputy named Doug Johnson … who’s accused of kneeling on the top of a handcuffed inmate for a number of minutes. The March 2021 incident obtained nationwide information consideration.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Division allegedly tried to forestall the main points of the incident from going public … believing it might be a black eye for the division.
It isn’t the primary scandal Doug Johnson’s allegedly been concerned in … ‘trigger he is accused of being one of many deputies who took pictures of Kobe’s stays on the crash website.
Images have been then allegedly proven to civilians — with out authorization — in locations like bars.
Now, legal professionals for L.A. County are asking a decide to forestall Vanessa’s lawyer’s from elevating the difficulty throughout the defamation and negligence trial — filed by the Bryant household in 2020 — and set to start in July.
The county, in paperwork filed on Friday, argues the jail incident is “solely unrelated” to Vanessa’s case. They argue citing such a sizzling button challenge like extreme drive may have an enormous impact on the end result of the trial.
Legal professionals for the county reportedly requested Vanessa’s authorized staff in the event that they’d agree to not carry up the opposite incident … however VB’s lawyer refused, based on the L.A. Occasions. That is when L.A. County filed the movement.
A decide is but to decide on L.A. County’s request.
This is the footage of Deputy Douglas Johnson kneeling on the top of Enzo Escalante, leaked to Knock LA. @AleneTchek reported on claims that Sheriff Villanueva directed a cover-up of the investigation of this use-of-force & is now the topic of a division investigation. pic.twitter.com/ELj7K2N7Yq
— Knock LA (@KnockDotLA) April 27, 2022
@KnockDotLA
As for the jail incident … Johnson was captured on digital camera main an inmate by means of a hallway, earlier than the person, awaiting a homicide cost, punched him within the face a number of occasions. As soon as Johnson bought the 24-year-old inmate beneath management and handcuffed, he allegedly knelt on the inmates head for round 3 minutes.
The incident was caught on surveillance video.
