Thread by @meghanncuniff

As a reporter, it was quite a thrill to see a police official get picked apart in court by a skilled lawyer for putting out a BS press release, down to his misuse of the word alleged. My story on the devastating direct exam of @LASDHQ Chief Jorge Valdez: bit.ly/3A44Ymv

The audio of Chief Valdez and Sheriff Villanueva lying when asked about the citizen’s complaint regarding the photos is at the bottom of this great @latimes article. It’s been played many times in trial already and likely will be played many times more. lat.ms/3dvH4bP

I don’t have a copy of the ensuing emails between Valdez and the reporter that were shown to Valdez yesterday, but Valdez writes that because of “insensitive intention” to publish, @LASDHQ was having to contact the families of each victim to tell them about “your allegations.”

As the jury was told in openings last week, Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter were killed in the crash, has never once heard from anyone with Los Angeles County about these photos. Not once. He found out about them by reading the @latimes article.

Chester’s lawyer, Jerry Jackson, went into a line of questioning about who contacted Chester, which led to Valdez saying that he learned at that moment from Jackson that no one w/ @LASDHQ ever did. That’s when when Valdez extended his “utmost condolences” to Chester and Vanessa.

“Can you think of one single reason why you couldn’t have driven down to Orange County and looked him in the eye and apologized?” Jackson asked.

“No, sir,” Valdez answered.

More in my @LawCrimeNews piece here: bit.ly/3A44Ymv

^^^The magnificent trial lawyering aspect of this all is that Jackson said this was going to happen in his opening. Told jury to remember when they hear witnesses apologize it’s 1st time Chester has ever heard that. Jackson knew the exams he planned would result in just that.

Here's my other article on the morning testimony from Deputy Joey Cruz, who showed the photos at the bar, and Deputy Michael Russell, who admitted the "callous mistake" of sending the photos to another off-duty deputy as they were playing @CallofDuty. bit.ly/3dtPxfz

Here's the @LASDHQ press release shown to Valdez during the systematic wrecking that was his direct exam by Jerry Jackson. It's still online. "The Sheriff is deeply disturbed at the thought deputies could allegedly engage in such an insensitive act." lasd.org/lasd-departmen…

Valdez is back on the stand at 8 a.m. for cross-examination by an LA County @MillerBarondess lawyer. Unfortunately my usual @MetrolinkOC train was cancelled this morning so I had to take a later one and may miss it, but I'll definitely be there for the next witnesses.

On tap today is a step inside the 2020 @RTNASoCal #GoldenMikes, with testimony from @LACOFD officials who were looking at photos of Kobe's body during cocktail hour. (One's wife invited someone to see them apparently not realizing her cousin is victim Keri Altobelli.)

One thing that became clear yesterday was that @LASDHQ officials knew well before @TMZ reported Kobe’s death at 11:24 a.m. that the crash involved Kobe, and how much trust had been placed in them. Kobe’s assistant first called the station at 10:22 a.m. lawandcrime.com/celebrity/la-c…

Vanessa’s lawyer Luis Li had a bit of a moment yesterday in his exam of @LASDHQ’s Matt Vander Horck while asking about a traffic collision policy put before deputies in earlier testimony. The policy says the decedent is to have their face photographed for identification purposes.

Deputy Mejia, who trained the deputy who showed photos at the bar and is one who gave him the photos, said it applied to aviation crashes, so deputies' photos were within policy. Li asked Vander Horck if the policy applies to traffic accidents (he said it doesn’t) then asked...

... if Mejia would be surprised that deputies in charge of training have testified, at the prompting of the county's defense lawyers, that they believe it justifies the photos. County counsel objected as argumentative and Judge Walter sustained.

The sustainment was probably over the part about the county's lawyers, but I bet Li thinks it was worth it just to get that before the jury. It's important to remember that LA County is not a private company, though the lawyers defending LA County are from a private company.

I made it in time to catch the end of @LASDHQ Chief Jorge Valdez's testimony. He was asked in cross about the recording of him lying to @AleneTchek about the citizen's complaint about deputy showing the photos in a bar. Valdez began his answer by saying, "I'll be honest..."

"I'll be honest, I bungled the interview with the reporter. I got stuck on technicalities," Valdez said, testifying under oath that he didn't believe bar patron Ralph Mendez's complaint was a true @LASDHQ complaint.

Valdez he misstated that he didn't know of a complaint and if he could do it over again he would tell "the reporter to clarify things" and tell her the steps the sheriff took to preserve the privacy of all involved.

I left the courtroom during forensic expert David Freskos' testimony (not exactly shocking that he doesn't think @LASDHQ did a good job examining the deputies' phones) to check out the alleged Mexican Mafia lawyer's testimony (just getting started). About to go back in.

The @LACOFD guys from the #GoldenMikes are sitting on a bench down the hallway, including Capt. Tony Imbrenda, who had the photos of Kobe's body that he was showing off at the Golden Mike Awards in 2020.

After his devastatingly effective exam of Valdez yesterday, Chester’s lawyer Jerry Jackson got the last question for Valdez this morning, asking him about the @LASDHQ sheriff’s instruction that Valdez “get to the bottom of it” and how many photos he determined there were.

Jackson latched on to Valdez saying he didn’t know who Ruby Cable is. Every juror by now knows she’s a deputy who was sent the photos by her trainer, Deputy Mejia. Jackson asked about others, including the @CallofDuty guys, Michael Russell and “how about Ben Sanchez?”

“Have any idea who he is?” Jackson asked.
“No,” Valdez answered.
Jackson ended by asking Valdez if he should ask Sheriff Alex Villanueva about what Valdez couldn’t answer.
“You can,” Valdez answered.
“Thank you. I will,” Jackson answered.
Villanueva is #37 on the witness list.

Last break of the day. @LACOFD Capt. Tony Imbrenda testifying that he never showed photos of Kobe’s body at the Golden Mike Awards and that there’s no way his girlfriend (they’re not married as previously indicated in testimony) asked Luella Weireter if she wanted to see them.

Done for the day. Last witness was @LAFD Capt. Erik Scott, who is the current public information officer. He was at #GoldenMikes and saw a few photos from @LACOFD Capt. Tony Imbrenda but says he was talking to Imbrenda about how to handle a media frenzy, not about Kobe’s remains.

Here’s my article on @LACOFD Capt. Tony Imbrenda’s testimony today. He steadfastly denied ever having photos of Kobe Bryant’s remains and said the #GoldenMikes cocktail hour showing was part of “talking shop” about responding to the crash. bit.ly/3CeBLIm

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