LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, was awarded $16 million as a part of a $31 million jury verdict Wednesday towards Los Angeles County for deputies and firefighters sharing grisly photographs of the NBA star; their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna; and different victims killed in a 2020 helicopter crash.
The 9 jurors unanimously agreed with Vanessa Bryant and her attorneys that the photographs invaded her privateness and brought about emotional misery. She cried quietly as the decision was learn.
The jury deliberated 4½ hours earlier than reaching the decision on Kobe Bryant Day, which is commemorated within the metropolis of L.A. on Aug. 24 as a result of it represents his jersey numbers — eight and 24 — and is the day after his birthday. Tuesday would have been Bryant’s 44th birthday.
After the decision, Vanessa Bryant posted a photograph on Instagram of herself along with her husband and daughter.
“All for you!” the caption learn. “I really like you! JUSTICE for Kobe and Gigi!”
An lawyer for the county declined touch upon the decision exterior the courtroom.
The images have been shared principally amongst staff of the L.A. County sheriff’s and hearth departments, together with by some who have been enjoying video video games and attending an awards banquet. In addition they have been seen by a few of their spouses and in a single case by a bartender at a bar the place a deputy was ingesting.
Vanessa Bryant tearfully testified through the 11-day trial that information of the photographs compounded her still-raw grief a month after the deaths of her husband and daughter, and that she nonetheless has panic assaults on the thought that the photographs may nonetheless be on the market.
“I dwell in concern day-after-day of being on social media and these popping up,” she testified. “I dwell in concern of my daughters being on social media and these popping up.”
Her co-plaintiff, Chris Chester, whose spouse and daughter have been additionally among the many 9 folks killed within the crash, was awarded $15 million.
“We’re grateful for a jury and a decide who gave us a good trial,” Chester’s lawyer Jerry Jackson mentioned.
Vanessa Bryant’s attorneys didn’t give jurors a greenback quantity they thought their consumer deserved, however Chester’s lawyer gave them instructed pointers that might have meant tens of hundreds of thousands for every plaintiff.
Vanessa Bryant and her lawyer declined remark exterior courtroom Wednesday. Her face was nonetheless streaked with tears as she walked previous TV cameras and dozens of reporters and climbed into an SUV.
Vanessa Bryant’s lawyer Luis Li advised jurors that the close-up photographs had no official or investigative function, and have been mere “visible gossip” shared out of a ugly curiosity.
County lawyer J. Mira Hashmall argued through the trial that the photographs have been a mandatory software for assessing the state of affairs.
She acknowledged that they need to not have been shared with everybody who noticed them. However she emphasised that the photographs had by no means appeared publicly and had by no means been seen by the plaintiffs. She mentioned that meant that Sheriff Alex Villanueva and different officers had taken decisive and efficient motion after they ordered those that had the photographs to delete them.
Kobe Bryant, the previous Lakers star, five-time NBA champion and member of the Basketball Corridor of Fame, was touring with Gianna and 7 others to a youth basketball recreation when the helicopter they have been aboard crashed into hills in Calabasas west of Los Angeles on Jan. 26, 2020.
Federal security officers blamed pilot error for the crash.
