Citing the stress of working the crash, Brian Jordan resisted questions that led him back to his actions that day when lawyers for Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, claimed he was being shown around by a sheriff’s deputy to take site photography of the scene. including crash wreckage and the remains of victims.
“Are Kobe Bryant’s remains among the photos?” Bryant’s attorney Luis Li asked before being cut off by Jordan.
“I need a break, I need a break,” Jordan said as he stood up. “Sorry, Your Honor,” he said as he left the stands for the first of three times.
At one point, in interrogation, Li noted that Jordan left with his lawyer every time.
Steven Haney, Jordan’s attorney, told CNN that his client’s departure from the courtroom was not a legal issue, but a response to “a medical condition associated with viewing the scene of the accident and causing him to have a undergoes trauma”.
Jordan repeatedly said he couldn’t remember taking pictures as he has deleted that day from his memory since retiring in early 2021.
Later, when another plaintiff’s attorney asked if he had taken pictures of specific body parts, Jordan said, “The way the whole scene looked is going to haunt me forever, and excuse me because I’m about to to take another break.”
At times, Jordan turned down targeted questions from lawyers about what exactly he was shooting that day and why.
“The only reason I’m sitting here is because someone threw my name into this whole thing,” Jordan said on the witness stand. He says a supervisor asked him to take photos of the site as part of the fire service’s response to the crash.
“Maybe that was the day I should have disobeyed,” Jordan said defiantly.
At one point, Haney, Jordan’s attorney, who is not one of the attorneys representing Defendant LA County, objected to a question from the plaintiffs from near the courtroom, saying, “Asked and answered.” When the judge realized who was objecting, he instructed Haney not to raise any further objections.
LA County argues that the photos were part of the necessary photography of the accident scene and that they adequately contained their distribution, arguing that the photos never surfaced online.
The testimony continued with a series of Los Angeles County sheriff deputies receiving and sharing the sensitive photos, including an intern who showed the photos to a bartender he considered a friend.
“Looking back, do you think there was a reason to receive these photos of the accident?” Plaintiff’s attorney Craig Lavoie asked.
“Looking back on it today, no.” Deputy Joey Cruz said, although he insisted he accepted them initially because he thought he might later be commissioned to write a report on the incident.
Regarding the bartender, Cruz added, “He’s a good friend that I vented my heart to… I went too far, something I shouldn’t have done.”
Cruz is due to return to the witness stand on Tuesday.
