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Vanessa Bryant awarded $16 million in Kobe Bryant crash photography test

A jury awarded the widow of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant $16 million in damages due to leaked photos of the site of a January 2020 helicopter crash by responders. First take a picture and share it with the public.

Irfan Khan | Los Angeles Times | beautiful pictures

A jury awarded the widow of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant $16 million in damages due to leaked photos of the site of a January 2020 helicopter crash by responders. First take a picture and share it with the public.

The nine jurors who returned the verdict unanimously agree with Vanessa Bryant and her attorneys that deputies and firefighters take and share photos of the remains of Kobe Bryant and their 13-year-old daughter , Gianna, invaded her privacy and caused her emotional distress.

Vanessa Bryant and co-plaintiff Chris Chester sued Los Angeles County for unspecified millions of dollars over the photographs, which included graphic images of human remains.

Chester’s wife Sarah and daughter, Payton, 13, were among nine people killed when their helicopter crashed north of Los Angeles.

The jury awarded Chester $15 million in punitive damages.

Bryant and Chester’s attorneys argued that both plaintiffs suffered from extreme emotional stress after learning county employees took cellphone photos of people as “souvenirs” and shared them with co-workers. and members of the public.

The closing debates began on Tuesday, on Kobe Bryant’s 44th birthday.

On Wednesday, Bryant walked into court in an all-white outfit and held hands with her eldest daughter, Natalia, and close family friend Sydney Leroux, an Olympic gold medalist and Gianna’s favorite soccer player. . She was also joined by Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka and his wife.

Bryant endured two weeks of emotional testimony, sometimes wiping away tears and leaving the courtroom when painful or graphic evidence was presented.

Bryant testified for more than three hours Friday, she sobbed in the stands as she described the anguish and anger she felt after learning first responders leaked the images.

“I felt like I wanted to run down the block and scream,” she told the court, her body shaking with emotion. “I can’t get rid of my body. I can’t get rid of what I feel.”

Evidence presented at trial showed that a Los Angeles County sheriff shared a photo of Kobe Bryant’s body to a bartender, leading to a formal complaint from another patron of the bar. , who witnessed the exchange. Evidence also shows that firefighters passed around pictures at an awards party, and others shared them with their spouses.

A district attorney said the photos were taken because they were essential to assessing the hard-to-reach crash site in the mountains above Malibu and that Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva requested all both of them must be deleted after learning that they have been shared. .

Villanueva admitted in court last week that his department’s policies were insufficient to address the privacy concerns at the heart of the case. He said there was “no manual” for first responders to use their personal devices to take pictures of the site in trouble.

Villanueva, who will run for re-election this year, also admitted that he has no way of confirming whether all of the leaked photos have been deleted.

None of the photos have been made public, but Vanessa Bryant said she lives in fear of one day seeing them.

The helicopter was heading from Orange County to Gianna’s basketball game at Kobe Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks when thick fog and low visibility affected the flight.

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