LA County has accused Vanessa Bryant of conducting a 'fishing expedition' after she named four sheriff's deputies accused of sharing graphic photos from Kobe's crash.

In a filing submitted this week in federal court attorneys say the basketball star's widow is 'subjecting first responders to harassment and threats'.

Vanessa named the four LA County sheriff's deputies accused of sharing the images in March. Kobe Bryant and six others, including the couple's 13-year-old daughter Gianna, were killed on January 26 last year when their helicopter crashed.

In September Vanessa filed a lawsuit against the department, accusing deputies of taking and leaking photos of the crash in the hills of Calabasas, and of 'showing off' pictures of her husband and daughter's bodies.

Now a new court filing from county has said she is taking a 'scorched earth' approach to the case, USA Today reports.

It reads: 'This straightforward case, with undisputed facts, has turned into a fishing expedition that is taking first responders away from their jobs — and subjecting them to public harassment and threats.

'Defendants are eager to have their day in court and put an end to this.

'Plaintiff has dedicated countless hours to meaningless discovery disputes and posting recklessly about the defendants on social media - all while taking the position that her 50 depositions cannot begin until she has every single document in the County’s possession.

'That is not diligence. There is no basis for modifying the scheduling order.'

Vanessa has asked for more time for the trial because of a large amount of material that attorneys need to review.

But the new filing adds: 'Plaintiff posted the deputy defendants’ names online, and they were subjected to harassment and threats.'

It includes examples of the reaction to her post naming the defendants which read: 'PULL EM OUTTA HIDING LIKE ROACHES THEY ARE.'

Vanessa shared the officer's names to her Instagram page, squared in red, along with several pages of the lawsuit. The officers are named as Joey Cruz, Rafael Mejia, Michael Russell and Raul Versales.

The lawsuit also names Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the sheriff's department as defendants. Bryant is suing for negligence, invasion of privacy and a 14th Amendment violation.

The suit claims that the deputies shared the photos among themselves and with others for no law enforcement purpose.

Separately, it was reported last week that two Los Angeles County firefighters could be fired and a third suspended for allegedly taking the graphic photos.

An internal investigation by the Los Angeles County Fire Department found that two firefighters - whose names were not disclosed in the court filings - had taken photos of the bodies in the helicopter wreckage that 'served no business necessity,' Vanessa Bryant's attorneys wrote, and 'only served to appeal to baser instincts and desires for what amounted to visual gossip.'

They then sent the photos to a third firefighter - a media relations officer who went to the scene and later shared the images with off-duty firefighters and their wives and girlfriends while socializing at an awards ceremony at a Hilton hotel the month after the crash.

The two firefighters - one of whom was at the site solely to monitor safety procedures - were sent 'intention to discharge' letters last December.

The third firefighter received an 'intention to suspend' letter. The employment status of all three was not immediately clear Wednesday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom last year signed a law that makes it a crime for first responders to take unauthorized photos of deceased people at the scene of an accident or crime.

The NBA legend and his daughter Gianna, nicknamed Gigi, were on their way to her basketball tournament in Thousand Oaks, California when the helicopter crashed in Calabasas on January 29, 2020, sparking memorials and murals across the country.

Last year, Bryant filed a civil rights lawsuit against the department seeking damages for negligence and invasion of privacy, alleging county employees showed gruesome photos taken from the scene where Kobe and Gianna, as well as seven other people, died.

Federal safety officials blamed pilot error for the wreck that killed the basketball star.