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A California judge has ruled that Vanessa Bryant's lawsuit against Los Angeles County will move forward after denying a request by the county to dismiss it all together.
In handed down the ruling this week, USA Today reported that US District Judge John F. Walter said he considered "genuine issues of material fact" in bringing Bryant's lawsuit one step closer to a jury trial.
Vanessa Bryant is suing LA County over its mishandling of photos of the Calabasas crash site where her husband, the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant, 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others died in a helicopter accident on January 26, 2020.
Attorneys representing LA County argued that Bryant's lawsuit didn't have merit because the photos were deleted and not shared except by one sheriff's deputy who showed a bartender.
However, Bryant's attorney, Luis Li, argued that they have evidence at least 28 other county-issued electronic had the photos –– which included graphic pictures of Kobe and Gianna's remains –– and were passed along to at least a dozen firefighters.
"The gratuitous sharing continued in the following days and weeks and included such outrageous conduct as flaunting the photos in a bar while pantomiming dismemberment and showing off the photos over cocktails at an awards gala ... The callous and shocking behavior uncovered by Mrs. Bryant is more than enough to survive summary judgment," Li wrote in a court statement, per The Bleacher Report.
The trial is scheduled to begin February 22 in Los Angeles.
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