Man who sparked probe into Kobe Bryant crash photos speaks out | ABC7

Vanessa Bryant has said the only thing worse than losing her husband and daughter that day is knowing that sheriff's deputies and firefighters took and shared graphic close-up

photos

of their remains. The scandal might never have come to light if it weren't for a whistleblower, that man. Ralph Mendes spoke with us for this eyewitness news investigation on Taco Tuesday at the Baja California Bar and Grill in Norwalk two days after the helicopter

crash

that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others, a source. confirming to espn that nba legend

kobe

bryant

has died in a helicopter

crash

in southern california, the conversation at the bar revolves around the accident.

La County Sheriff's Deputy Joey Cruz, seen here in the white t-shirt, pulls out his phone. Graphic

photos

of Kobe Bryant's remains at the crash site after Deputy Cruz leaves. the bartender tells a group of regulars sitting in this booth that officer cruz just showed him the gruesome photos of ralph mendez there that night with friends from his softball league he describes what he heard from the bartender he has photographs he showed me photographs photographs of what photographs of all the bodies and then he started to describe what he saw, you know they were all burned and he got very graphic with that mendes says the waiter told him that the helpers laughed and found the photos funny mendes hoped that nothing of That was true, it just sounded bad, it just sounded bad on different levels, whether it's a league or not, whether it's against sheriff's department policy, I don't know, but it sounded bad, like saying something bad. .

Mendes said something when filing this complaint that night with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and I thought to myself that if I don't say anything and it's true, I don't think I'll ever be able to make a living on my own. Mendez says that night he thought about his own fiancée who was pregnant and then expecting their first child together, a girl. The father-to-be saw a role model in Kobe. A father of four girls loved his girls. You could see it in his face. His girls loved him and he's a girl daddy just like i am now there were three daughters aboard the helicopter that day, gianna

bryant

, alyssa altobelly and payton chester, all on their way to a women's basketball tournament, when the news first broke that the agents and county firefighters shared grim images of the crash scene, Sheriff Vannueva said this is wildly inappropriate.

It's disgusting and damaging to people who have already suffered a tragedy, on top of that, to think that it could be expanded beyond that by having a public display of their loved ones' remains, so we are trying to put an end to this vanessa bryant and The other families who lost their loved ones that day filed lawsuits over sharing the photos. The two families have already settled for a total of $2.5 million, but Vanessa Bryant is headed to trial possibly late next month. vanessa bryant lawyers say gruesome photos of

kobe

and daughter Gianna's remains were turned over to at least 28 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department personnel and at least a dozen firefighters.

Then Los Angeles County Fire Capt. and spokesman Tony Imbranda, allegedly showing photographs to colleagues of him during the cocktail hour at the Golden Microphone Awards ceremony weeks after the accident, was demoted. and transferred fire captain brian jordan retired rather than be fired and fire captain arlen cahan was suspended for 30 days without pay county attorneys argued that vanessa bryant's emotional distress claim is based on hypothetical harm because the photos were not released publicly In her statement, Vanessa Bryant testified that for the rest of her life she will live in fear that these photographs of her husband and son will be leaked and made public.

What she wants from the lawsuit, she says, is accountability, according to court documents, only one of Sheriff Joey Cruz's deputies seen here at his graduation from the Joey Cruz Academy was disciplined other deputies received no discipline but in their They instead received what is known as a performance record entry in their files regarding Ralph Mendes, who triggered the investigation with his complaint about the assistant Cruz at the bar. He has no regrets, I feel for the families, I really do. wrong and I wish this wasn't happening, all my prayers are with them and yes I hope justice is served in all of this.

I do it all over again, I just think that's how it was. The correctness trial is scheduled for February 22, but could be delayed due to Covid. The trial is expected to last three weeks with around 40 witnesses taking the stand. Hi, I'm Mark Brown. Get more great content from ABC 7 by clicking subscribe. button for our youtube channel and download abc 7 los angeles streaming app on fire tv android tv apple tv and roku to watch on your tv