
Fire captain denies using Kobe Bryant crash photos as 'party trick' at cocktail hour
CNN
In court Wednesday, a Los Angeles County fire captain denied using photos from the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others as a "party trick" when he showed the images during an awards ceremony cocktail hour.
Fire Captain Tony Imbrenda's testimony was part of a federal civil lawsuit brought by Bryant's widow, Vanessa Bryant, that alleges LA County invaded her privacy and failed to fully contain the spread of the photos, inflicting emotional distress. Christopher Chester, whose wife and daughter also died in the crash, is a co-plaintiff. Both he and Bryant allege they live in fear of the photos re-surfacing online.
Imbrenda served as a public information officer the day of the crash. In February 2020, while at the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California's Golden Mike awards, a discussion began among several fire department public information officers about the response that day and Imbrenda's role in it, the captain testified.

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