A jury ruled on Wednesday that Los Angeles County must pay Kobe Bryant’s widow and a co-plaintiff $31 million in damages over graphic images taken at the scene of the helicopter crash that killed the basketball star and eight other people.
Firefighters and sheriff’s deputies who arrived on the scene of the January 2020 incident took photos of the wreckage, which included the mutilated corpses of the Los Angeles Lakers great and his daughter Gianna, who was 13 years old.
During a trial in Los Angeles, it was shown that some of the first responders displayed the images to bystanders, including a bartender, while a deputy texted a friend as the two were playing video games.
Vanessa Bryant and Chris Chester, whose wife, Sarah, and daughter, Payton, also died in the collision, filed a lawsuit for emotional damages related to the images, which they claimed they worried would eventually go public online.
After only a few hours of deliberation, the civil jury awarded Bryant and Chester $16 million and $15 million, respectively, from the county.
The award serves as compensation for current and upcoming suffering.
After the verdict was read, Bryant sobbed and walked out of the court without responding to the waiting reporters.
Later, she shared a photo of herself with her late husband and daughter on Instagram with the remark, “All for you! I adore you. Kobe and Gigi deserve justice!
‘Accountability’
Chester’s lawyer on Tuesday had called for $1 million for every year of the plaintiffs’ expected lives, a figure that amounted to $40 million for 40-year-old Bryant, and $30 million for 48-year-old Chester.
“You can’t award too much money for what they went through,” said attorney Jerry Jackson.
Bryant’s lawyer Craig Lavoie said he was asking for “justice and accountability” for the basketball great — a hero to the city of Los Angeles — and his widow.
“We’re here because of intentional conduct. Intentional conduct by those who were charged with protecting the dignity of Sarah and Payton, and Kobe and Gianna.”
“The county violated Mrs Bryant and Mr Chester’s constitutional rights,” Lavoie said, asking the jury to hold the county liable for “the constitutional violations of its employees.”
For the county, Mira Hashmall said that while employees had broken confidentiality policies, Bryant and Chester’s privacy had not been violated because the pictures had never been in the public domain.
“This is a photo case, but there are no photos,” she told jurors earlier. “There’s a simple truth that cannot be ignored — there’s been no public dissemination.”
After the verdict, Hashmall said she and fellow lawyers would be consulting with the county about “next steps.”
“Meanwhile, we hope the Bryant and Chester families continue to heal from their tragic loss,” a statement said.
Relatives of other victims of the crash were last year granted a total $2.5 million in compensation over the photo-taking.
The jury’s order came as Los Angeles celebrated “Mamba Day” on August 24, or 8/24, the two numbers Kobe Bryant wore over 20 years as a professional.
An investigation into the crash found the pilot had probably become disoriented after flying the Sikorsky S-76 into fog as he transported his passengers to a girls’ basketball tournament in nearby Thousand Oaks.
Kobe Bryant is widely recognized as one of the greatest basketball players ever, a figure who became the face of his sport during a glittering two decades with the Los Angeles Lakers.
He was a five-time NBA champion in a career that began in 1996 straight out of high school and lasted until his retirement in 2016.